Abstract
In this paper, a new shape memory alloy (SMA) hybrid basalt fibre reinforced polymer (BFRP) composite laminate was fabricated and a new surface modification method with both silane coupling agent KH550 and Al2O3 nanoparticles was conducted to enhance the interface performance. The mechanical performance of BFRP composite laminates with and without SMA fibres and the influence of SMA surface modification were studied in this paper. Different SMA fibre surface treatment methods, including etching with both H2SO4 and NaOH, modification with the silane coupling agent KH550 and new modification method with both KH550 and Al2O3 nanoparticles, were conducted to enhance the bonding between the SMA fibres and polymer matrix. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to observe the micromorphology of the SMA fibre surfaces exposed to different treatments and the damage morphology of composite laminates. The mechanical performance of the composites was investigated with tensile, three-point bending and low-velocity impact tests to study the influence of embedded SMA fibres and the different surface modifications of the SMA fibres. The results demonstrated that the embedded Ni-Ti SMA fibres can significantly enhance the mechanical performance of BFRP composite laminates. SMA fibres modified with both the silane coupling agent KH550 and Al2O3 nanoparticles illustrate the best mechanical performance among all samples.
Highlights
As environmentally friendly natural fibre, basalt fibre have attracted attention ever since they were discovered in 1923 [1]
Under the same impact energy, it can be seen that the damage region of specimens without shape memory alloy (SMA) fibres is larger than specimens embedded with SMA fibres
All the specimens embedded with SMA fibres have similar energy absorption capacity, which indicate that the SMA surface modification have limited influence to the energy absorption performance of composite laminates
Summary
As environmentally friendly natural fibre, basalt fibre have attracted attention ever since they were discovered in 1923 [1]. Materials 2018, 11, 70 composites have better impact resistance performance They investigated the performance of the interface between the basalt fibres and polymer matrix through short beam strength tests, which was proven to be similar to that between glass fibres and the polymer matrix. Due to their properties, SMA fibres have been used by researchers to fabricate shape memory alloy hybrid composite (SMAHC) laminates with enhanced mechanical performance. Tsoi et al [24] and Meo et al [25] investigated the mechanical performance under low-velocity impact In their studies, it was found that the addition of SMA fibres enhanced the impact resistance of the SMAHC. Basalt fibre/SMA/polymer composite laminates were fabricated to enhance the performance of BFRP composite laminates, especially the through-the-thickness performance, which was never investigated. Fibres and polymer matrix will reduce the overall performance of composite laminates but there are limited research focusing on that, we use some traditional methods and a new surface modification method with both silane coupling agent KH550 and Al2 O3 nanoparticles to modify the interface obtaining a better overall performance of composite laminates
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