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

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.