Mechanical, Thermal and Wear Behavior of SiC Particle Strengthening of PMMA-Toughened Glass-Epoxy Hybrid Composite

The effect of silicon carbide (SiC) particle strengthening on polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA)-toughened glass-epoxy composite has been studied. The primary aim of this research is two different tasks. Studying the effect of PMMA toughening on glass-epoxy composite and the effect of SiC particle addition are the two tasks. The PMMA and SiC particles are dispersed with epoxy resin at room temperature and composites are prepared using hand layup method. The composites were subjected for post cured at 80(omicron)C for better performance. The tensile and flexural results showed that the addition of PMMA and SiC improved the tensile, flexural strength and modulus. Similarly, the TGA of PMMA toughened glass-epoxy composite shows higher mass loss whereas; SiC addition retains the temperature stability. The specific wear rate and coefficient of friction (COF) showed that the composites inbuilt with SiC content offered lower sp. wear rate and COF of 0.024 and 0.5. The scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs explicated more shear cups and striations, which indicates improved toughness of composites.