Development of Fiber-Reinforced Transparent Composites

Abstract

In this study, a continuous glass fiber-reinforced composite is manufactured using the vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) process. The composite is manufactured from an S-glass fiber acting as reinforcement and an epoxy resin as matrix. Unlike a traditional E-glass fiber reinforcement, S-glass fibers give higher stiffness and provide easier manufacturability due to the value of the refractive index of S-glass lying within the range of refractive indices of the epoxy resin. The epoxy resin is synthesized Epon 826, Epalloy 5200, and hexahydropthalic anhydride and tailored to match refractive indices of the S-glass fibers. After synthesis of the resin, composite panels are manufactured from the synthesized epoxy resin and S-glass fibers with a bi-directional [0°/90°] 8-harness satin weave. VARTM process was utilized to manufacture the composite panels. Composite panels are visually inspected for transparency, and tensile, flexural, and impact testing is performed. Mechanical tests showed consistent results for tensile modulus, tensile strength, flexural modulus, flexural strength, and impact damage resistance.

Department(s)

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering

Second Department

Chemistry

Research Center/Lab(s)

Center for High Performance Computing Research

Second Research Center/Lab

Intelligent Systems Center

Keywords and Phrases

manufacturing; S-glass; testing; Transparent composites; VARTM

International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)

0967-3911; 1478-2391

Document Type

Article - Journal

Document Version

Citation

File Type

text

Language(s)

English

Rights

© 2021 SAGE Publications , All rights reserved.

Publication Date

01 Nov 2021

Link to Full Text

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