Investigations on mechanical and wear characteristics of glass fiber reinforced modified epoxy nano composites

Abstract

Polymer nanocomposites have observed massive development in modern era due to their possible applications in a wide range of engineering industries. It is prominent that the combinations of nano fillers with polymer matrix offer materials with excellent properties, which are not feasible by using an individual element. The principal objectives of the present study is to enhance the properties of commercially significant E-glass fiber reinforced epoxy composite structure strengthened by adding cloisite 93 nanoclay to the epoxy resin to obtain hybrid nanocomposites, which may fulfil the necessities of composites used in high performance applications. The glass fiber reinforced epoxy composite laminates filled with various weight percentages (1, 3, 5 and 7 wt%) of cloisite 93 nano clay particles were manufactured using hand layup and followed by compression moulding techniques. The manufactured specimens of unfilled or neat epoxy glass fibre reinforced composites and nano clay filled reinforced hybrid composites were tested for mechanical properties and morphological investigation. The investigation on mechanical properties such as tensile strength, flexural strength, impact strength, micro hardness, interlaminar shear strength and compression strength was carried out for the manufactured reinforced composites. The mechanical studies were carried out for unfilled composite laminate and all weight percentages of 1, 3, 5 and 7 wt% of the epoxy matrix composite laminates. For 5wt % reinforced nanoclay composites, the tensile strength and modulus were found to increase by 23.58 and 23.66% when compared to the unfilled composite. Further increase in nanoclay content decreases the tensile properties of nano composite. newline