Evaluation of mechanical and erosive wear properties of hybrid nano composites basalt/E-glass fiber + MWCNTs/SiO2

Abstract

The extensive study conducted has revealed that the mechanical and other characteristics of hybrid composites are greatly influenced by several aspects, such as the kind of fibre reinforcement, nanofillers, matrix materials, and the manufacturing methods employed. In the context of structural applications, the incorporation of Multi-wall Carbon Nanotubes (MWCNTs) as fillers in E-Glass fibres had a significant impact on the rapid alteration of mechanical properties, particularly strength, in the composites. This study aimed to create hybrid nanocomposites by including multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and silicon dioxide (SiO2) as filler materials, Basalt/E-glass as fibres, and epoxy with hardener as the matrix. This study utilises statistical methods, specifically the Taguchi L16 Orthogonal Array (OA), to analyse the impact of various operating factors. The parameters selected for this study include MWCNTs/SiO2 fillers at varying weight percentages (0 %, 1 %, 2.9 %, and 3 %), an epoxy matrix with decreasing weight percentages (40 %, 39 %, 38 %, and 37 %), compression pressures ranging from 5 MPa to 35 MPa, and moulding temperatures ranging from 40 °C to 100 °C. The mechanical parameters being examined are the tensile strength and erosive wear. The utilisation of the hand layup and compression moulding technique achieved the development of these composites. By optimising the moulding temperature, significant improvements were achieved in the tensile strength, which reached 184.38 MPa. Similarly, reducing the percentage of fillers resulted in a substantial decrease in erosive wear, with a value of 95.06 mg/kg.