FATIGUE PERFORMANCE OF MICRO-FIBRILLATED CELLULOSE AND RUBBER NANOPARTICLE HYBRID EPDXY RESIN REINFORCED CARBON PLAIN WEAVE COMPOSITES

The present work gives a contribution on understanding the effects of hybrid epoxy resins, enhanced with micro-fibrillated cellulose (MFC) and carboxylated nitrile-butadiene rubber nanoparticles (XNBR), on the tensile-tensile cyclic loading of carbon fibres plain weave textile composites. The experimental investigation shows the effects of four different combinations of MFC and XNBR weight contents in the epoxy resin (from 0% to 0.5% of MFC and from 0% to 3% of XNBR) on the fatigue behaviour compared to the composite with pure resin counterpart. The results of fatigue tests reveal on one hand a considerable extension of the fatigue life of the composite having the larger content of MFC, while a reduction increasing the XNBR weight. On the other hand, some combinations of MFC and XNBR delay the stiffness degradation of the composite.