No abstract

In this study, the effect of silica nanoparticles as the reinforcing filler on the tensile response of basalt fibre reinforced polymer (BFRP) composite was investigated. A 40 wt.% nanosilica gel in epoxy was used to prepare a series of nanocomposites with 5 wt.%, 15 wt.% and 25 wt.% nanosilica. Static uniaxial tensile tests were conducted on the basalt fibre reinforced polymer composite to investigate the stress‐strain response of the unmodified and nanomodified composites. It was found that the incorporation of silica nanoparticles with high specific surface area improved the tensile properties of the basalt fibre reinforced polymer composite. The addition of silica nanoparticles in the composite shows significant improvement in tensile modulus with 6 %, 14 % and 19 % for 5 wt.%, 15 wt.% and 25 wt.% nanosilica content, respectively. The higher content of silica nanoparticles in the matrix increased the stiffness of the material as well as the strength of the basalt fibre reinforced polymer composite without reducing the failure strain.

This work aims to give insight on the effect of accelerated weathering, i.e., the combination of ultraviolet (UV) exposure and water spraying, on the visual and mechanical properties of basalt fiber reinforced polymer (BFRP) composites. The solvent exchange method, sonication and high shear milling technique were used to prepare the nanocomposite laminates. Three types of laminates were fabricated, i.e., unmodified BFRP, nanosilica modified BFRP and graphene nanoplatelet (GNP) modified BFRP composites with the total fiber loading of 45 wt.%. Glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP) laminate was also prepared for performance comparison purposes between the natural and synthetic fibers. The laminates were exposed to UV with a total weathering condition of 504 h using a Quantum-UV accelerated weathering tester. The weathering condition cycle was set at 8 h 60 °C UV exposure and 4 h 50 °C condensation. The discoloration visual inspection on the tested specimen was observed under the optical microscope. The obtained results showed that the UV exposure and water absorption caused severe discoloration of the laminates due to photo-oxidation reaction. The effect of weathering conditions on tensile and flexural properties of unmodified BFRP composites indicated that the UV exposure and water absorption caused reduction by 12% in tensile strength and by 7% in flexural strength. It is also found that the reduction in tensile and flexural properties of nanomodified BFRP composites was smaller than the unmodified system. It concluded from this work, that the mineral based composites (i.e., BFRP) has high potential for structural applications owing to its better properties than synthetic based composites (i.e., GFRP).

Basalt fibre (BF) is one of the most promising reinforcing natural materials for polymer composites that could replace the usage of glass fibre due to its comparable properties. The aim of adding nanofiller in polymer composites is to enhance the mechanical properties of the composites. In theory, the incorporation of high strength and stiffness nanofiller, namely graphene nanoplatelet (GNP), could create superior composite properties. However, the main challenges of incorporating this nanofiller are its poor dispersion state and aggregation in epoxy due to its high surface area and strong Van der Waals forces in between graphene sheets. In this study, we used one of the effective methods of functionalization to improve graphene’s dispersion and also introducing nanosilica filler to enhance platelets shear mechanism. The high dispersive silica nanospheres were introduced in the tactoids morphology of stacked graphene nanosheets in order to produce high shear forces during milling and exfoliate the GNP. The hybrid nanofiller modified epoxy polymers were impregnated into BF to evaluate the mechanical properties of the basalt fibre reinforced polymeric (BFRP) system under tensile, compression, flexural, and drop-weight impact tests. In response to the synergistic effect of zero-dimensional nanosilica and two-dimensional graphene nanoplatelets enhanced the mechanical properties of BFRP, especially in Basalt fibre + 0.2 wt% GNP/15 wt% NS (BF-H0.2) with the highest increment in modulus and strength to compare with unmodified BF. These findings also revealed that the incorporation of hybrid nanofiller contributed to the improvement in the mechanical properties of the composite. BF has huge potential as an alternative to the synthetic glass fibre for the fabrication of mechanical components and structures.

Synthetic FRP have been used for many years in wide applications owing to their versatility and good performance. However, environmental problems caused by extensive use of polymeric materials arise mainly due to lack of landfill spaces and depletion of finite resources of fossil raw materials, such as petroleum or natural gas. Hence, materials derived from natural products are emerging as potential substitutes for petroleum-based material. The usage of natural fibre reinforced polymer (NFRP) composite have triggered considerable interest to explore the usefulness of this material. Excellent energy absorption of sandwich-structured composite made it a versatile structure used in various industries such transportation, automotive, building construction and marine. On top of that, the research data on aluminium foam as a core material in sandwich panel are limited and need to be further studied. This research is aimed to determine the quasi-static indentation properties of Basalt Fibre Reinforced Polymer/Aluminium Foam (BF-AF) sandwich panel and compare with the properties of Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymer/Aluminium Foam (GF-AF) sandwich panel. In this study, BFRP and GFRP composites with nanosilica were fabricated using vacuum bagging method. Aluminium foam was used as a core in the sandwich panel structure. The quasi-static indentation tests were performed using 10mm indenter and the specimen size was 50mm x 50mm with thickness of 3mm. The effect of aluminum foam on indentation properties were studied. The results showed that the addition of nanosilica enhanced the energy absorption, depth of penetration and damage area of the composites. The indentation properties of BF-AF were higher than those of GF-AF sandwich panel composites. Therefore, this research contributes to a new knowledge on the properties of aluminium foam-FRP composite materials