Affiliations 

  • 1 Department of Mechanical Engineering, KCG College of Technology, Chennai 600 097, India. prince.mech@kcgcollege.com
  • 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, KCG College of Technology, Chennai 600 097, India. ramesh_1968in@yahoo.com
  • 3 Faculty of Engineering, UCSI University, Kuala Lumpur 56000, Malaysia. cad.elango.n@gmail.com
Materials (Basel), 2018 Nov 05;11(11).
PMID: 30400592 DOI: 10.3390/ma11112186

Abstract

The principal objective of this research work was to investigate the results of impregnating epoxy matrix-glass fibre composite laminates with nanosilica as secondary reinforcement. 0.5, 0.75, 1 and 3 wt% nanosilica was used and thereafter properties of composites were assessed through tensile, three point bending, quasi static indentation tests and dynamic mechanical analysis. Scanning electron microscope examinations were done on fracture surfaces and failure modes were analyzed. The internal failures of the composite due to quasi-static indentation were evaluated through C-Scan. Among samples of different weight fractions, 0.75 wt% nanosilica reinforced composite laminates exhibited substantial increase of 42% in tensile strength and 39.46% in flexural strength. The reduction in glass transition temperature (Tg), increase in storage modulus (E'), loss modulus (E″) and damping factor (tan δ) were also observed. Quasi-static indentation assessments revealed that energy absorption property was enhanced significantly by 53.97%. Hence nanosilica up to 0.75 wt% can be used as a potential candidate for secondary reinforcement in epoxy composite laminates.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.