INVESTIGATION ON FLEXURAL AND IMPACT STRENGTH OF HOLLOW GLASS FABRIC AND E-GLASS FIBER-REINFORCED SELF-HEALING POLYMER COMPOSITES

Abstract

The present study investigates the self-healing functionality of e-glass unidirectional fiber-reinforced epoxy resin, based on a hollow glass fiber approach under flexural and impact loading. The planned self-healing fiber-reinforced composite constitutes epoxy resin (Lapox ARL-125 + AH-367), e-glass fibers with 0° orientation, embedded hollow glass fabric (HGF) filled with a curing agent (Lapox L-552/K-552), which provides a self-healing functionality. The developed composite is tested on the virgin, damaged, and healed conditions for the various healing periods (1, 2, and 3 days), and recovered flexural, impact strength and subsequent healing efficiency are studied. On day three, the optimum flexural strength achieved is 851.17 N/mm², with a healing efficiency of 74.53% when subjected to quasi-static load. Similarly, the optimum impact energy absorbed is 4439.26 J/m, and impact strength achieved is 445.88 kJ/m², with a healing efficiency of 55.58% when subjected to impact load. The results show that developed self-healing composites may provide excellent flexural and impact properties for marine structural applications.