Mechanical Properties of Glass-Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Composites Filled with Al 2O3 Particles

Abstract

An experimental study has been carried out to investigate the mechanical properties of glass-fiber reinforced epoxy composite filled with different proportions of Al₂O₃ particles. As a comparison, the mechanical properties of unfilled glass-fiber reinforced epoxy composite were also evaluated under identical test conditions. The results showed that while ultimate tensile strength and shear strength of the composites decreased with increasing Al₂O₃ particles content, flexural strength increased with the Al₂O₃ particles content of up to 10% beyond which it decreased. Compared with the flexural properties of the unfilled glass-fiber reinforced epoxy composite, with the addition of 10 wt% of Al₂O₃ particle in the matrix, flexural strength, and flexural modulus were increased by 33 and 78%, respectively.

Keywords

polymer matrix glass fibers particle-reinforcement mechanical properties.

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