The fracture of glass-fibre-reinforced epoxy composites using nanoparticle-modified matrices

Abstract

The use of silica nanoparticles and rubbery particles to synthesize hybrid-toughened epoxy polymers has been shown to give a range of novel matrices that can be used to produce composite laminates by a resin infusion under flexible tooling (RITF) process. The glass-fiber-reinforced polymer (GFRP) composite panels were manufactured by RIFT. A thin film of poly(tetrafluoroethylene) (PTFE) was inserted into the fabric prior to resin infusion to act as a starter crack for the fracture specimens. It was observed that the presence of the rubber and nanoparticles does not significantly decrease the flexural modulus or the glass transition temperature of the composite. These formulations exhibit significant increase in the interlaminar fracture energy in both mode I and mode II fracture of GFRP composites.