Study of erosion resistance and mechanical properties of unsaturated polyester based nano-composites

The addition of spherical and platelet shaped nano-particles in polymer composites has been shown to increase the electrical erosion resistance of insulation systems. Previous studies have mainly focused on the performance of epoxy based nano-composites and there are currently no studies evaluating the performance of ambient cured unsaturated polyester (UPR) nano-composites for their electrical erosion resistance. The present study focuses on the performance of UPR nano-composites with respect to their electrical erosion resistance as well as other mechanical and thermal properties. It was shown that the use of spherical particles showed the greatest increase in the erosion resistance of the resultant composites, however, the platelets showed the greatest increase in mechanical properties. Further, the optimum concentration of nano-particles, irrespective of particle morphology, was found to be between 0.5 and 1.5 pph with respect to erosion resistance and mechanical properties. Addition of a silane coupling agent was found to increase the properties of the resultant composites further, with respect to electrical erosion resistance and mechanical properties upto an optimum concentration. Further increase in coupling agent concentration resulted in a decrease in performance due to a decrease in the crosslinking density of the composites.