Flexural and Short beam shear strength analysis of symmetrical GFRP composites reinforced with MWCNTs having notches

Abstract

The background of the work is experimental and micromechanical investigation of specimen samples having notch at a particular location from the central axis on Short Beam Shear Strength (SBSS) and Flexural strength of prepared Glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) composites doped with Multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). The GFRP used is fabricated using hand lay-up technique assisted by vacuum bagging method and is symmetrical with eight layers of 4.0 mm thickness in total. The doping wt.% of MWCNTs used were 0 (neat), 1, 2, 3 and 4. The testing was carried out in Universal Testing Machine (UTM) using ASTM D2344 and ASTM D7264 standard samples for SBSS and Flexural strength test respectively. Test results show an increase in ILSS by 207.58% and Flexural strength by 63.82% respectively of samples with notches at 3 wt.% doping of MWCNTs. From the FESEM images the failure initiation and propagation could be observed for the different tests which are investigated in this experiment.