Influence of fillers on mechanical behaviour of carbon fiber/vinyl ester hybrid composites

Abstract

In this experimental work, vinyl ester resin was reinforced with high strength carbon fiber (CV) and the mechanical properties were further improved by incorporating SiC/graphite particles. Overall, the enhancements of both the hardness and strengths of CV composites with SiC/graphite were successfully achieved by fabricating composites using hand lay-up stacking followed by hot pressing. Mechanical tests demonstrate that, the tensile and flexural strengths/moduli of CV improved by increasing SiC/graphite from 2 to 6 wt%. The mechanical performances of CV/graphite hybrid composites were found to be supreme with the incorporation of 6 wt% of graphite particles. Meantime, the use of higher surface area and rigid flake kind graphite particles considerably showed improvement in the overall mechanical performance of CV hybrid composites. Furthermore, the CV/SiC hybrid composites show superior hardness. The utmost increment of hardness was found for the CV composite with 6 wt% SiC. The information bestowed during this paper is accustomed to develop load bearing hybrid composites for structural applications.