Water and brine absorption capacity of epoxy based glass fiber composite modified with CaCO3–Al2O3–MgO–TiO2/CuO filler materials

Abstract

Glass fiber reinforced composite materials have versatile engineering applications and superior performance for its various level of properties. Different fillers are mixed with the composite materials to enhance product performance. However, improvements on physical properties of this class of materials are still under research for different applications. In this work, with a fixed weight percentage of plain woven glass fiber reinforcement and epoxy composites added with four different types of fillers, such as Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3), Aluminum Oxide (Al2O3), Magnesium Oxide (MgO) and Titanium Oxide (TiO2) or Copper Oxide (CuO) at different weight ratios (5, 10 and 15 gm) are studied. The composite specimens required for different tests are fabricated in conventional hand lay-up technique followed by light compression molding process as per ASTM standards. These composites are investigated for water and brine solution absorption capacity and significant improvement is observed in case of the composite made of CuO than that of the composite made of TiO2. FTIR, TGA and SEM are also characterized.