Abstract
Epoxy granite (EG) is one of the potential alternate material to conventional materials for machine tool structures owing to improved dynamic characteristics. EG is found to offer better strength characteristics compared to other polymer concrete for structural applications. There was not much attempt has been made to study the advanced characterisation such as flexural toughness and compressive creep characteristics of EG. Hence, the current study focus on the experimental investigation to study the flexural toughness and compressive creep characteristics of EG and the effect of glass fibre on these characteristics. Flexural behaviour is studied through four-point bending test as per ASTM C 1018–97 and the compressive creep behaviour is studied as per ASTM C512 standard. The load–deflection plot of four-point test is used to study the strain energy and flexural toughness index of EG and glass fibre filled epoxy granite (GFEG). The transient variation of creep co-efficient and creep compliance was studied for the creep characteristics. Addition of glass fibre improved the flexural strength of EG by 15% owing to improvement in first crack load by 50% and fracture load by 30% respectively. The glass fibre also helps to improve the compressive creep characteristics with 22% lesser creep strain compared to that of EG. Thus, the study summarises the flexural and compressive creep characteristics of EG which are needed for the design of structures that primarily takes flexural and compressive loads such as base and bed of machine tools.
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