Experimental and optimization of mechanical properties of epoxy/nanosilica and hybrid epoxy/fiberglass/nanosilica composites

Abstract

In this paper, the effect of addition of nanosilica on mechanical properties of pure epoxy and epoxy/fiberglass composite has been investigated. The epoxy/nanosilica composites and epoxy/fiberglass/nanosilica hybrid composites have been fabricated, and the Young’s modulus, tensile strength, yield stress and elongation at break have been determined by simple extension tests. The results show that by addition of 1 wt% of nanosilica in both types of composites, Young’s modulus, yield stress and tensile strength decrease and elongation at break increases. By increasing the nanosilica content, the Young’s modulus, yield stress and tensile strength increase and elongation at break decreases. Also, imperialist competitive algorithm is employed to model the mechanical properties as fourth degree polynomial functions. The accuracy of polynomial is maximized and coefficients are obtained. The results show 25.66%, 56.87% and 45.84% improvement in Young’s modulus, yield stress and tensile strength of pure epoxy, respectively. Also, 12.9%, 24.83% and 12.85% improvement in Young’s modulus, yield stress and tensile strength of epoxy/fiberglass composites, has been observed, respectively.

Keywords

Epoxy nanosilica epoxy/fiberglass mechanical properties hybrid nanocomposites

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Mortazavi

Bardon

Bomfim

JAS

. A statistical approach for the evaluation of mechanical properties of silica/epoxy nanocomposite: verification by experiments. Comput Mater Sci 2012; 59: 108–113.

Zamanian

Mortezaei

Salehnia

. Fracture toughness of epoxy polymer modified with nanosilica particles: particle size effect. Eng Fract Mech 2013; 97: 193–206.

Wang

Liu

Liang

. Nanoscale analysis of tensile properties and fracture of nanoreinforced epoxy polymer using micromechanics. J Reinf Plast Compos 2013; 32: 1224–1233.

Wang

Liang

Zhu

. Modification of cyanate resin by nanometer silica. J Reinf Plast Compos 2007; 26: 419–429.

Singh

Kaushik

. Mechanical and transport properties of colloidal silica-unsaturated polyester composites. J Reinf Plast Compos 2006; 25: 119–140.

Liu

. Study on nanosilica reinforced stereolithography resin. J Reinf Plast Compos 2010; 29: 909–920.

Zhou

R-J

Burkhart

. Mechanical and optical properties of nanosilica-filled polycarbonate composites. J Thermoplast Compos Mater 2010; 23: 487–500.

Meng

Wang

Saber

. Nanosilica-toughened polymer adhesives. Mater Des 2014; 61: 75–86.

Liu

H-Y

Wang

G-T

Mai

Y-W

. On fracture toughness of nano-particle modified epoxy. Compos B Eng 2011; 42: 2170–2175.

10.

Guo

Wong

. Effect of interphase and strain-rate on the tensile properties of polyamide 6 reinforced with functionalized silica nanoparticles. Compos Sci Technol 2013; 75: 62–69.

11.

Han

Fang

. Functionalised silica/epoxy nanocomposites with enhanced fracture toughness for large-scale applications. J Compos Mater 2015; 23: 487–500.

12.

Feng

Wang

. Effects of modified silica on morphology, mechanical property and thermostability of injection-molded polycarbonate/silica nanocomposites. J Reinf Plast Compos 2014; 33: 911–922.

13.

Yuan

Yan

Jia

. Microwave curing bismaleimide-triazine composites filled with micro-silica and nano-silica. J Reinf Plast Compos 2014; 33: 1743–1750.

14.

Liu

H-Y

Wang

Mai

Y-W

. Cyclic fatigue crack propagation of nanoparticle modified epoxy. Compos Sci Technol 2012; 72: 1530–1538.

15.

Tsai

J-L

Hsiao

Cheng

Y-L

. Investigating mechanical behaviors of silica nanoparticle reinforced composites. J Compos Mater 2010; 44: 505–524.

16.

Zheng

Ning

Zheng

. Study of SiO2 nanoparticles on the improved performance of epoxy and fiber composites. J Reinf Plast Compos 2005; 24: 223–233.

17.

Lingaraju

Ramji

Pramila Devi

. Mechanical and tribological studies of polymer hybrid nanocomposites with nano reinforcements. Bull Mater Sci 2011; 34: 705–712. doi:10.1007/s12034-011-0185-2.

18.

Lingaraju

Ramji

Rao

. Characterization and prediction of some engineering properties of polymer-clay/silica hybrid nanocomposites through ANN and regression models. Proc Eng 2011; 10: 9–18.

19.

Dumpal L, Suneel D, Koona R, et al. Prediction of mechanical properties of silica hybrid nanocomposites. In: Sasipraba T (ed.) International Conference on nanoscience, engineering and technology (ICONSET), Chennai, India, 28–30 November 2011, pp.100–103. Chennai, India: IEEE.

20.

Manjunatha

Jagannathan

Padmalatha

. Improved variable-amplitude fatigue behavior of a glass-fiber-reinforced hybrid-toughened epoxy composite. J Reinf Plast Compos 2011; 30: 1783–1793.

21.

Manjunatha

Bojja

Jagannathan

. Enhanced fatigue behavior of a glass fiber reinforced hybrid particles modified epoxy nanocomposite under WISPERX spectrum load sequence. Int J Fatigue 2013; 54: 25–31.

22.

Böger

Sumfleth

Hedemann

. Improvement of fatigue life by incorporation of nanoparticles in glass fibre reinforced epoxy. Compos A Appl Sci Manuf 2010; 41: 1419–1424.

23.

Atashpaz-Gargari E and Lucas C. Imperialist competitive algorithm: an algorithm for optimization inspired by imperialistic competition. In: Jian Xin Xu (ed.) IEEE congress on evolutionary computation CEC, Singapore, Singapore, 25–28 September 2007, pp 4661–4667. Singapore: IEEE.