Development and Mechanical Characterization of HGMS–EHS-Reinforced Hollow Glass Bead Composites

Abstract

Hollow glass microsphere-reinforced epoxy hollow spheres (HGMS–EHSs) were prepared by a “rolling ball method” using expanded polystyrene beads, HGMSs, and epoxy resin (EP). The three-phase epoxy syntactic foam (epoxy/HGMS–EHS–HGMS composite) was fabricated by combining HGMS–EHS as a lightweight filler with EP and HGMS by a “molding method”. The HGMS–EHS and epoxy curing agent systems were well mixed by scanning electron microscopy. Experiments show that higher HGMS–EHS stack volume fraction, lower HGMS–EHS layer number, higher HGMS–EHS diameter, lower HGMS–EHS density, higher HGMS volume fraction, and lower HGMS density result in a decrease in the density of the three-phase epoxy syntactic foam. However, the above factors have the opposite effect on the compressive strength of the three-phase epoxy syntactic foam. Therefore, in order to obtain the “high-strength and low-density” three-phase epoxy syntactic foam, the influence of various factors should be considered comprehensively to achieve the best balance of compressive strength and density of the three-phase epoxy syntactic foam. This can provide some advice for the preparation of buoyancy materials for deep sea operations.

Influence of Graphene Nano Fillers and Carbon Nano Tubes on the Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Hollow Glass Microsphere Epoxy Composites

“…As a result, all the composites revealed a decrease in density values as the HGM content increased. Similar trends can be observed in [14,[28][29][30]. Furthermore, HGM/E composites revealed lower density as compared with HGM/CNT/E and HGM/G/E.…”

Fabrication and Mechanical Performance of Glass Fiber Reinforced, Three‐phase, Epoxy Syntactic Foam

“…Figure 3(d) is the graph of the difference in compressive strength of GF‐ESF and ESF. Compared with Tao Jiang etc., [21] the compressive strength of epoxy syntactic foam filled with GF is increased by 69 %, and the unfilled foam is also increased by 56 %. It can be seen from the figure that the compressive strength of each GF‐ESF is greater than that ESF, and as the density of HGMS‐EHS increases, the difference becomes more and more obvious.…”

Investigation on preparation and mechanical properties of carbon fiber fabric/hollow glass beads/epoxy resin sandwich composite laminates

“…There is no obvious interfacial debonding between CFF/EP layer and HGB/EP layer. In addition, HGB, a rigid particle, hollow sphere shape (as shown in Figure 7A, B), can carry the load and disperse the stress, [ 17 ] contributing to the strengthening to a certain degree. Therefore, it can be concluded that the flexural strength and modulus of CFF/HGB/EP sandwich composite laminates improved with the HGB content increasing.…”

“…However, the impact strength decreases when HGB content exceeds a certain value, resulting from two main reasons. On the one hand, HGB are inorganic rigid particles, [ 17 ] so that the increase in HGB content will reduce the toughness and increase the brittleness of the sandwich composite. When subjected to impact load, the failure mode of composite will transform ductile fracture into brittle fracture, resulting in a decrease in impact strength.…”

“…[ 10–15 ] The density of pure EP is about 1.2 g cm −3 , [ 16 ] so EP can be modified to have its density further reduced and enrich its applications. Hollow glass beads (HGB) have the characteristics of low density, excellent thermal stability, good compressibility and corrosion resistance, [ 17–20 ] which can be used to fabricate light‐weight and high‐strength composites.…”