Contrast on tensile and flexural properties of glass powder reinforced epoxy composites: pilot study

Abstract

Epoxy resin was filled with glass powder to optimize the tensile and flexural strength of the composite for structural applications by a research centre in the University of Southern Queensland (USQ). In order to reduce costs, the centre wishes to fill as much glass microspheres as possible subject to maintaining sufficient strength of the composites in structural applications. This project varies the percentage by weight of the glass powder in the composites. After casting the composites to the moulds, they were cured at ambient conditions for 24 hours. They were then post-cured in a conventional oven and subjected to tensile and flexural tests. The contribution of the study was that if tensile and flexural properties were the most important factors to be considered in the applications of the composites, the maximum amount of glass powder can be added to the resin will be five (5) percent. It was also found that the fractured surfaces examined under scanning electron microscope were correlated with the tensile and flexural strength It is also hoped that the discussion and results in this work would not only contribute towards the development of glass powder reinforced epoxy composites with better material properties, but also useful for the investigations of tensile and flexural properties in other composites.