Physical and mechanical behaviour of epoxy based hybrid composites with blast furnace slag and sisal fiber as reinforcement

Abstract

The present work consists of designing and developing epoxy composite with blast furnace slag (BFS) along with sisal fiber (SF) as a hybrid filler material. The BFS is in the form of micro-particulates and sisal fibers are in the form of short fiber. The composites are fabricated keeping the content of BFS constant to 10 wt% and varying the content of sisal fiber from 0 wt% to 5 wt%. The epoxy/BFS/SF hybrid composites are tested for determining their physical behavior and mechanical properties. From the experimental analysis, it is observed that the density of the material rises with the BFS loading and decreases with the sisal fiber loading. Against that, void content and water intake rise with fillers loading. The mechanical properties of the epoxy-based hybrid composites under investigation improve with the inclusion of BFS and sisal fiber. From the analysis, it is recommended that a hybrid combination of fillers gainfully modifies the physical properties and enhances the mechanical properties so that the composites under investigation can find their potential application in light-duty structural applications.