Physical and Thermo-Mechanical Behaviour of Adansonia Digitata-Glass Fibres and Ceramic Hybrid Epoxy Composite

Abstract

This study is geared towards evaluating the physico-thermal and mechanical properties of fibreglass-ceramic-adansonia digitata’s fibres reinforced epoxy composite with relatively fire-resistant behaviour to validate its effectiveness in most applications. The composite was developed with the aid of a seamless manual hand lay-up technique. The Adansonia digitata fibre and the constituent matrix ratio were thoroughly mixed to obtain a homogenous paste which was then allowed to cure using the compressive moulding machine for 7 min. Different volumetric compositions were obtained using the Taguchi L9 (3)3 orthogonal array method for the experimental design. Physico-mechanical analyses were carried out on the developed composite. The Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) were done to determine the thermal stability and morphological characteristics of the composite respectively. It was evident from the experiment that the developed composites possessed better mechanical and thermal properties with good performance than the control sample, which can serve as a superior alternative for conventional fibres as both for fire resistance and other engineering applications.