Improvement of impact-resistant property of glass fiber-reinforced composites by carbon nanotube-modified epoxy and pre-stretched fiber fabrics

Pengfei WANG, Xin ZHANG, Guohui LIM, Haosiang NEO, Andrew Alexander MALCOLM, Yong XIANG, Guoxing LU, Jinglei YANG*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Journal PublicationsJournal Article (refereed)peer-review

45 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Glass fiber-reinforced plastic composites (GFRPs) are often suffered to impact loadings; it is essential to improve its damage-resistant properties and understand the energy absorption mechanisms. In this work, the low-velocity impact behaviors of GFRPs were investigated in consideration of epoxy resins modified with 0, 0.4, and 0.75 % multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) by weight content and pre-stretched fabric at 0, 1.27, and 2.47 kg weight. In comparison with pure GFRPs sample, MWCNT-modified specimens are effective in improving the impact resistance under impact energies at 9, 16, and 22 J in terms of reduced damage factor and enhanced perforation threshold. Microscopic fractographic analysis indicated that the incorporation of MWCNTs in epoxy matrix offered additional mechanisms through breakage, bridging, and pull-out of carbon nanotubes to favor load transfer effect, prevent crack propagation, and thus dissipate more energy. The dynamic thermo-mechanical analysis proved that MWCNTs improved the storage modulus and glass transition temperature of the composites. In addition, the pre-stretched GFRP composites showed more impact resistant than the non-stretched ones through instant load transfer effect.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)5978-5992
Number of pages15
JournalJournal of Materials Science
Volume50
Issue number18
Early online date12 Jun 2015
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Sept 2015
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

We would like to thank Dr. Gowthaman Swaminathan, Dr. He Zhang, and Bin Yu for their constructive suggestions and supports. We thank Dr. Xiuzhi Tang and Dr. Wanshuang Liu for their kind help with the measurement of the fiber volume fraction and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), respectively.

Funding

The authors wish to acknowledge the DRTech-DIRP grant that supported this research.

Keywords

  • Contact Force
  • Storage Modulus
  • Impact Energy
  • GFRP
  • Damage Factor

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