Enhancement Mechanical, Thermal and Dielectrical Characteristics of Polystyrene Reinforcement by Glass Fiber and Additive Kaolin

Abstract

The current study ensures the possibility of improving the mechanical and dielectric properties of polystyrene/kaolin reinforced with glass fibers. Polystyrene was dissolved using coloring in a ratio of 1 to 2. The prepared composites were studied and the results of the tensile, impact, hardness, thermal conductivity, and dielectric, has been obtained. Through the tensile results, it was found that with an increase in the addition of kaolin, both the yield points and the Young modulus decreased with a small and noticeable increase for the sample with the percentage of addition beyond 8 percent in Elongation, and shown high flexibility. The highest tensile strength appeared in the pure sample (x= 0%), where the value reached 22.85 MPa, while the lowest was for the sample with ratio 2%. While the impact result showed a noticeable increase with the increase in the percentage of addition of kaolin in the few percentages only. The sample with an addition rate of 8% kaolin, showed a high rebound energy, through the results of the energy absorption test, and it had the highest thermal conductivity and dielectric coefficient.