INVESTIGATION OF COEFFICIENT OF THERMAL EXPANSION OF SIO_2 PARTICULATE-REINFORCED EPOXY COMPOSITES

摘要

This study involves the investigation of thermal stability of silicon dioxide (SiO_2) particle-reinforced epoxy resin by evaluating the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE). Spherically shaped, 10 urn size SiO_2 particles and EPON 862 epoxy were utilized as fillers and matrix materials, respectively. The SiO_2 particles were dispersed in the epoxy resin through a direct shear mixing method. The CTE was evaluated by measuring thermal strains of the composite specimens at various volume fractions of the particles up to 33%. Tensile testing was also conducted to investigate Young's modulus of the composites. We report up to 95% increase in Young's modulus of the particle reinforced composites with the addition of 33% volume fraction of SiO_2 particles as well as significant improvement in thermal stability, resulting in around 26.5% reduction in CTE. Furthermore, this study successfully demonstrates how to indirectly determine the filler's material properties such as Young's modulus and CTE by combining experiment, micromechanics models and finite element analysis (FEA).