Effect of Processing Techniques Used for Improvement of Mechanical Properties of Glass Fiber Epoxy Nano Composites

Abstract

The incorporation of carbon nanofibers with a high aspect ratio and extremely large surface area into glass/epoxy polymers improve their mechanical properties significantly. Previously large number of efforts have been made to improve mechanical properties by mixing carbon nanofibers into resin, however, it may raise high viscosities which create difficulties during manufacturing of polymer composite samples. Presently, an attempt has been made to improve mechanical properties of nanocomposites by using, a different technique i.e spraying the Carbon nanoFibers (CNF) on glass fabric layers before impregnating it with epoxy resin. This paper presents influence of two different processing techniques used for manufacturing of polymer nanocomposites. Firstly, solution was prepared to obtain well dispersed epoxy resin filled with 1.0 wt % CNF, to impregnate carbon fabric in a vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) setup for sampling. Secondly, the nanocomposite samples were prepared using a spraying methodology i.e dispersing the CNF solution on carbon fabric and followed by VARTM. Tensile, compression and flexural tests were performed to evaluate the effectiveness of CNF addition on the improvement of mechanical properties by using both techniques. Results indicated, CNF addition offered simultaneous increase in mechanical properties in different percentages by using both the processes respectively. SEM analysis of fractured surfaces has also been carried out to examine the micro structural details of in-depth study.