Characterization Of Selected Polymer Nanocomposites Using Friction Stir Processing

Abstract

A composite is a material made up of two or more constituent substances with significantly different physical or chemical properties that, when combined, produce a material with characteristics different from those of the individual components. Composites are commonly used to fabricate aircraft wings, fuselages, boat hulls, bulkheads in ship, and other several commercial applications such as power tools etc. Composites provide major savings in weight as compared to the conventional materials without compromise in strength owing to the specific properties and low weight of the individual components and the ability to fabricate composites for specific applications. Many techniques such as hand lay-up, spray-up, filament winding, vacuum bag moulding, resin transfer moulding and compression moulding can be used to fabricate polymer nanocomposites. Yet defects such as structural degradation, fibre misalignment, voids, moisture content, agglomeration of reinforcing particles and channels occur while fabricating composites using conventional techniques. Recently, friction stir processing is increasingly evolving as a viable technique to fabricate composites. Especially polymer nanocomposites fabricated through friction stir processing using stationary shoulder are highly defect free. However, the amount of research in this area is found to be less, which makes it vital to undertake this study. newline newlineIn this work Al2O3, MWCNT and Graphene particles were reinforced within HDPE, Nylon 6 and GFRP polymer matrixes using rotational and stationary shoulder friction stir processing techniques. newline newline newline newline newlineVisual observations of the fabricated composites were done to identify the technique that provides defect free polymer nanocomposites. Conventional rotating shoulder FSP tooling system exhibited defects such as voids, channels, out pouring of reinforcements and delamination either due to the insufficient heat generation or inadequate material flow/stirring. On the other hand polymer nanocomposites such as HDPE/Al2O3,