Reinforcing effect of nanoclay on mechanical properties of woven glass epoxy composites

Abstract- In this study, the tensile properties of 2D woven glass epoxy composite reinforced by nanoclay have been investigated. Hand lay-up method has been used to manufacture nanocomposites with 12 layers of 2D woven glass fibers of 40% fiber volume fraction. The nano-epoxy resin system is made of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (epon 828) resin with jeffamine D400 as the curing agent. The composites were reinforced by adding organically modified montmorillonite nanoclay (Closite 30B) in a 0%, 3%, 5%, 7% and 10% ratio in weight with respect to the matrix. The results show that low loading of nanoclay decreases the mechanical properties of glass epoxy nanocomposite. So that 3 wt.% nano composite indicates the worst mechanical performance. Tensile strength and toughness of nanocomposite increase by 7% and 10% after adding 5 wt.% nanoclay. Higher nanoclay content increases elastic module and decreases failure strain, so it causes nanocomposite brittleness. Keywords -, , ,