Evaluation of tensile properties and fracture surface morphology of woven fabric-polymer composites filled with micro SiC and Al2O3 particulates

Abstract

The current research aims to study the influence of hybridisation on the tensile and fracture surface morphology of plain weave glass fibre/epoxy composites. The polymer resin is primarily filled with inorganic particles such as silicon carbide and alumina, and the corresponding modified resin is termed as effective matrix. This effective matrix is further reinforced by plain weave glass fibre to fabricate the hybrid composite. Elastic properties of the composites are estimated after developing Micro-mechanical-model-based formulation considering different analytical model like Mori-Tanaka, Paul, Ishai-Cohen model along with equivalent modulus theory. Experiments are conducted to estimate the elastic constants and post-tensile fractured surface morphology of these composites. The tensile modulus predicted using Mori-Tanaka and equivalent modulus theory matches well with the experiments and found to be in good convergence compared to the other models. Detailed analyses of the fractured surface of the tensile samples express the positive effect of hybridisation on the tensile and failure behaviour. It is found that the tensile strength and elastic modulus of the composites increase with an increase in particulate content.