Cenosphere powder filled basalt fiber reinforced epoxy composite: Physical, mechanical, and thermal conductivity analysis

Abstract

The present research work study the effect of cenosphere particulate on the physical (density, void content, and hardness), mechanical (tensile strength, flexural strength, and impact strength), and thermal (thermal conductivity) characteristics of chopped basalt fiber reinforced epoxy matrix composites. The composite laminates are fabricated by traditional open mold casting technique. The cenosphere particulate is varying (0–15 wt%; @ step of 5 wt%) in the composites and percentage of basalt fiber is constant (40 wt%) in all the compositions (i.e. EBC 0, EBC 5, EBC 10, and EBC 15). Experimental results show that, the experimental density of the composites decreased with increase in cenosphere particulate percentage in the composite, whereas void content and hardness of the composites increased with increase in cenosphere percentage in the composite. Basalt-epoxy composite with 10 wt% cenosphere content (EBC 10) shows the maximum value of tensile strength (72.10 MPa), flexural strength (185.86 MPa), and impact energy (1.27).