Mechanical Behaviour of Polymer Matrix Composite Reinforced by Silicon Carbide Particles

Abstract

In various fields, Polymer-based composites are used extensively instead of traditional materials. The hand lay-up technology has been employed to prepare the composites of Silicon carbide particles-epoxy. Mechanical properties; shore D hardness, Flexural strength, tensile strength and impact strength were measured for all specimens. The present work has also studied the impact of different weight percentages (including 3, 6, 9, 12, 15 and 18) wt.% of SiC solid powder on the mechanical properties of fabricated samples with two average particle sizes of 75 and 105 µm. SiC particles were utilized as reinforcement with the epoxy with hardener according to the mixing of (3:1) ratio. The experimental results found that hardness, flexural strength and impact strength can be increased by increasing the weight percentage of Silicon carbide, while tensile strength is decreased with an increased weight fraction of silicon carbide.  At the same time, these properties were enhanced when the particles of SiC have 75 µm more than at 105 µm.