Investigate the best percentage by weight of glass powder, as fillers in phenolic resins by using tensile tests

摘要

The aim of the project is investigating the best percentage by weight of glass powder, as fillers, in phenolic resins by testing its mechanical properties of the composite material through the tensile testing. Composites are being increasingly used in a wide range of multitude applications such as aerospace, marine, transportation and civil engineering. In this project, glass powder will be used as filler, it not only reduces the cost but gains the advantage of being lightweight, more corrosion resistant, electrical resistant, heat resistant and stronger.udPhenolic formaldehyde thermosetting resin was mixed with an acidic catalyst at ratios from 30:1 up to ratio of 12:1, as well as adding glass powder by weight as filler. Once initial curing has occurred the specimens were subjected to post-curing in a microwave oven where they were baked at 240W until specimens reaches 100 degree temperatures. (30-40mins) In addition, tensile testing was preformed on the post-cured specimens to test for the yield, tensile and young’s modulus of each specimen. This will then allow for an analysis to be conducted, identifying what the effects the glass powder has on the phenol formaldehyde matrix composite. In addition, stereo microscope was used to identify at higher magnification what the surface of the composite looks like as well having a closer look at how much porosity had produced. Furthermore investigations were carried out to identify whether the glass powder was able to blend in with the phenolic resin to enable higher mechanical properties than the neat phenolic resin.udPhenol formaldehyde was filled with glass powder to increase the strength and impact toughness of the composite for structural applications. Research was conducted by the centre in the University of Southern Queensland (USQ). For the forward step, the main target of this project is to reduce the price and test its physical and chemical properties before moving to the industry production. It was found that the best percentage of glass powder by weight which added to the phenolic resin to give an optimum yield and tensile strengths as well as Young modulus and cost is about 10 percent. The contribution of the study was that if tensile properties were the utmost important factors to be considered in the applications of the composites, glass powder is not a suitable filler.