Mechanical Strength Behavior of Hybrid Composites Tailored by Glass/Kevlar Fibre-Reinforced in Nano-Silica and Micro-Rubber Blended Epoxy

Abstract

The present work aims to investigate the mechanical properties and fracture toughness of woven fabric Glass/Kevlar based hybrid composite tailored using modified epoxy with micro rubber and nano silica. The principal aim of this work is to clarify the importance of hybrid fibre/filler addition and stacking sequence of fibre reinforcement in epoxy matrix. The epoxy was modified with addition of 9% micro rubber and 11% of nano silica by weight fraction. Both glass and kevlar woven mats were made by hand weaving and the composites were prepared using hand lay-up method. The fracture toughness results revealed that the exclusive addition of rubber particles in epoxy reduces the strength and modulus but improved fracture toughness. Further tailoring the hybrid composite by adding nano silica of 11 wt.% increased tensile and flexural modulus. The highest tensile and flexural strength of 275 and 162 MPa was observed for composite, which contain nano silica as reinforcement at accumulate layer stacking sequence. The fractograph results revealed the dispersion of nano additions and fracture characteristics of hybrid composites. These mechanically toughened epoxy composites could be used in high damping mechanical applications.