Evaluation impact strength on particulate reinforced (25% and 33%) vinyl ester composite cured under microwave conditions

Abstract

The use of composites plays an important role in the fields of Mechanical and Civil Engineering. The idea of using composite materials in the two afore mentioned fields are no longer new. In the Fibre Composite Design and Development (FCDD), University of Southern Queensland (USQ) many researches and experiments on new lightweight materials and structures have been carried out. In the research, FCDD found that the composites made from vinylester resins suffer considerable shrinkage during hardening. With this issue in mind, research on the methods to decrease the shrinkage of the composites had been carried out. Ku (2002) claimed that by having vinyl ester composites cured under microwave conditions, such shrinkage can be reduced. The material used was thirty three percent by weight flyash particulate reinforced vinyl ester composite VE/FLYASH (33%). Unfortunately, the impact strength of the composites cured under microwave conditions with power level 540 Watts as compared to the composites cured under microwave conditions with power level 180 Watts and 360 Watts is still in doubt. With the above doubt in mind, this project was carried out to determine whether impact strength of the composites cured under microwave with power level 540 Watts, 360 Watts and also 180 Watts. Drop weight impact test was used to carry out the impact strength test. It was found that having the specimens cured with power level of 540 Watt, the impact strength had on these specimens were alike the one cured with power level 360 Watts and 180 Watts.