FATIGUE PERFORMANCE OF CARBON FIBER REINFORCED NANOSILICA MODIFIED EPOXY COMPOSITES

摘要

Carbon Fiber reinforced polymer composites are chosen engineering materials in automotive, aircraft and wind turbine application because of their excellent combination of mechanical properties. Despite their good specific strength and stiffness, they are susceptible to micro fatigue cracks which is easily propagated by the inherent nature of combined materials on a macroscopic scale. This limits their applications in impact and dynamic loading and the addition of nanoparticles in toughening the polymeric matrix has been proven to be a viable solution. Hence, this study aims at evaluating the fatigue performance of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Nanosilica Modified Epoxy Composites. 10 wt.% Nanosilica was uniformly dispersed in the epoxy resin matrix via a planetary centrifugal mixer and composite panels will be manufactured using Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Molding (VARTM). The quality of dispersion was evaluated using Scanning electron microscope. Tensile, flexural, and Interlaminar shear strength properties was evaluated as per their ASTM standards. Axial tension-tension fatigue test was conducted to generate S-N (stress-fatigue life) curves. The fatigue life of nanosilica-modified composites was correlated with control (unmodified) composites via the stiffness degradation model.