Experimental verification of strength of glass fiber reinforced polymer matrix composites

Abstract

An experimental investigation has been carried out to develop a new PMC (Polymer Matrix Composite) using commercially available Epoxy and Polyurethane resin systems. These resin systems would be reinforced with glass fibers, filler materials and aluminium foils. The laminates have been prepared by using the hand lay-up technique for eight layers and the mechanical tests such as tensile and compression test have been conducted for the PMC. This work has been carried out to identify the appropriate resin systems, filler materials and glass fiber reinforcement to estimate the strength of the composite. Two types of glass fiber (chopped mat & woven mat) with reinforcement of filler material and aluminum foil are used to estimate the strength of composite.
As per the findings from the present experimental study, the reinforcing aluminum foil and graphite filler in the chopped mat with Epoxy resin has a higher tensile strength compared to that of woven mat reinforcement. The filler material gains high tensile/compressive strength due to reinforcement. The properties of the laminate are improved due to the same reinforcement in epoxy resin as well as in polyurethane resin. From this investigation we concluded that filler material plays a very important role in composite system like the one that has been proposed in this work. It is observed that polyurethane resin has higher strength than that of epoxy resin under the same tensile and compressive loads.