Fabrication and characterization of Glass Fiber/SiC Reinforced Polymer composite

In recent years, the need for manufacturing reliable and innovative components has been increased rapidly. Fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) composite materials have strong candidature for fulfilling these aspects with wide applications in almost all areas of engineering and technology. Glass, Carbon, and aramid fibers are using widely for production of fiber reinforced polymer composites. The present work deals with the processing and characterization of glass fiber reinforced epoxy composites with silicon carbide(SiC) filler. The composite material samples were fabricated by Hand layup method.. In this study, the E-glass Epoxy laminates was manufactured and fabricated as per ASTM standard 300x300x4mm. The tensile and flexural strength of an E-glass epoxy laminated composite plate is to be analyzing by using UTM (Universal testing machine). Experiments like tensile test, three point bending and compression test were conducted to find the significant influence of filler material on mechanical characteristics of GFRP composites. The tests result has shown that higher the filler material volume percentage increases the strength of glass epoxy composites. An experimental study has been carried out to investigate the mechanical properties of glass-fiber reinforced epoxy composite filled with different proportions of SiC particles. It was found that bending, hardness and compressive strength was increased with the increase in percentage of glass fibres and SiC. But the fracture Strength of GFRP was decreased. SiC filler material makes FRP composite material harder and brittle which is the reason for reduction in tensile strength..It is possible to enhance the tensile strength of the composite by proper distribution of the glass fiber in the composite.