TY - JOUR
T1 - Effects of solid lubricant fillers on the flexural and shear strength response of carbon fabric-epoxy composites
AU - Rao, Yermal Shriraj
AU - Mohan, Nanjangud Subbarao
AU - Shetty, Nagaraja
AU - Shivamurthy, Basavannadevaru
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors are indebted to Dr. Sathyashankara Sharma (Head of the Department), Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Manipal Institute of Technology, Manipal, for inspiring us to accomplish this research. The authors are grateful to Dr. Satish Shenoy B (Head of the Department), Dr. Dayanand Pai (Professor), and Mr. Padmaraj (Assistant Professor), Department of Aeronautical and Automobile Engineering, MIT, Manipal, for permitting us to utilize the Advanced Composite and Material Testing Laboratory. The authors extend their gratitude to Mr. Shivaprasad Kamath and Mr. Madhava for helping us during the fabrication.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 The Author(s)
Copyright:
Copyright 2021 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2021/4
Y1 - 2021/4
N2 - Multi-layered carbon fabric-epoxy composites (CFEC) encounter certain challenges in expanding their usage mainly due to their low interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) and sensitivity to delamination damage. The present article focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of the fillers molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) (2–8 wt%) on the flexural and the shear properties of the CFEC. The filler dispersion in epoxy resin is achieved by ultrasonication and composite fabrication through vacuum-assisted hand lay-up process. The filler surface area, evaluated as per nitrogen adsorption principles, reveals characteristics of hysteresis isotherm and mesoporous structure in both the fillers. Fourier transform infrared analyses on MoS2 reveal the stretch vibration due to molybdenum-sulfur and disulfide bonds whereas, in the h-BN, the transverse stretching and the out-of-plane bending happen due to boron-nitrogen and the boron-nitrogen-boron molecular group, respectively. Further analysis in the atomic force microscope shows more regular filler distribution at the outer surface for 4 and 6 wt% filler loaded CFEC whereas, 8 wt% filler loading results in an uneven particle distribution and attains the minimum surface roughness. The study exhibits the maximum ILSS (43.46 MPa) which is 43% enhancement compared to the neat CFEC for 6 wt% h-BN loaded CFEC. The maximum flexural strength (532 MPa) was noticed in 4 wt% MoS2 loaded CFEC signifying 62% improvement compared to the neat CFEC. The structural property improvements were witnessed because of the regularly distributed filler that strengthens the fiber-matrix interaction zone and reduces the matrix crack. The findings reveal that the proposed enhanced scheme by solid lubricant fillers proves to be more favorable for improving the matrix-dominated properties and the bending stiffness compared to the other particle-reinforced approaches.
AB - Multi-layered carbon fabric-epoxy composites (CFEC) encounter certain challenges in expanding their usage mainly due to their low interlaminar shear strength (ILSS) and sensitivity to delamination damage. The present article focuses on evaluating the effectiveness of the fillers molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) and hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) (2–8 wt%) on the flexural and the shear properties of the CFEC. The filler dispersion in epoxy resin is achieved by ultrasonication and composite fabrication through vacuum-assisted hand lay-up process. The filler surface area, evaluated as per nitrogen adsorption principles, reveals characteristics of hysteresis isotherm and mesoporous structure in both the fillers. Fourier transform infrared analyses on MoS2 reveal the stretch vibration due to molybdenum-sulfur and disulfide bonds whereas, in the h-BN, the transverse stretching and the out-of-plane bending happen due to boron-nitrogen and the boron-nitrogen-boron molecular group, respectively. Further analysis in the atomic force microscope shows more regular filler distribution at the outer surface for 4 and 6 wt% filler loaded CFEC whereas, 8 wt% filler loading results in an uneven particle distribution and attains the minimum surface roughness. The study exhibits the maximum ILSS (43.46 MPa) which is 43% enhancement compared to the neat CFEC for 6 wt% h-BN loaded CFEC. The maximum flexural strength (532 MPa) was noticed in 4 wt% MoS2 loaded CFEC signifying 62% improvement compared to the neat CFEC. The structural property improvements were witnessed because of the regularly distributed filler that strengthens the fiber-matrix interaction zone and reduces the matrix crack. The findings reveal that the proposed enhanced scheme by solid lubricant fillers proves to be more favorable for improving the matrix-dominated properties and the bending stiffness compared to the other particle-reinforced approaches.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.polymertesting.2021.107085
DO - 10.1016/j.polymertesting.2021.107085
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85100383492
SN - 0142-9418
VL - 96
JO - Polymer Testing
JF - Polymer Testing
M1 - 107085
ER -