Influence of the Moulding Pressure and the Fibre Percentages on the Mechanical Properties of the Basalt Fibre Reinforced Polymer Matrix Composites

摘要

In this investigation the effect of basalt fibre percentage and the moulding pressure on tensile, flexural and impact strength was studied. The basalt fibre reinforced polymer matrix composites were fabricated using hand compression moulding method. Unsaturated polyester resin was used as matrix. For a proper chemical reaction cobalt naphthenate and methyl ethyl ketone peroxide were used as accelerator and catalyst respectively. For achieving homogeneous condition of the mixture the stirring process was carried out with the use of stirrer. In the experimentation, in addition to without pressure (Hand lay-up), different pressure range of 50, 75 and 100 Kgf/cm~2 and the fibre percentage of 57%, 72%, 78% and 82% were used. Fabricated composite plate is cut into ASTM standards for the selected mechanical properties such as tensile strength, flexural strength by using computer assisted Universal Testing Machine (UTM) and impact strength tested by Charpy Impact testing machine. The mechanical properties of the specimens are revealed in detail for various with fibre percentages and compression pressures and to study the fracture surface morphology of the composites, scanning electron microscopic (SEM) was also performed.