Preparation and Mechanical Characterisation of Basalt Fabric, Epoxy, and Silicon Dioxide Composite Materials

(Mohamad Barkat Ibrahim, Hussein Yousef Habib and Rafi Mousa Jabrah)

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Abstract

This work aims to prepare composite materials from woven basalt fabric and epoxy using the hand lay-up method to investigate the effect of the epoxy content and heat treatment on their mechanical properties. It was found that heat treatments of 60 °C for five hours improve mechanical properties. The best epoxy impregnation ratio, in terms of mechanical properties, is 40 wt%. Then, nanocomposite materials were prepared by adding nano- and micro-silicon dioxide to epoxy and basalt-epoxy 40 wt% composite material. The effect of silica on the prepared composite materials’ mechanical properties was also investigated.  It was found that the best silica loading content was 0.5% nano-silica based on the epoxy weight, as its addition improved the impact resistance of the composite basalt-epoxy 40 wt% material by more than 19%. The flexural modulus of the same composite material increased by 10%, and the flexural stress increased by approximately 35%. These results permit the use of this composite material in wider mechanical applications and open the door for the investigation of other mechanical properties of these materials.

KEYWORDS
Nano silica, micro silica, impact test, charpy method, flexural test, interface

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References

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