Fracture Toughness and Mechanical Properties of Aluminum Oxide Filled Chopped Strand Mat E-Glass Fiber Reinforced–Epoxy Composites

The knowledge of load bearing characteristics and failure of material is very important for mechanical engineers. Various metallic, non metallic and composite materials are used in different application. In view of this, the main objective of the present work is to analyze the influence of Aluminum Oxide filler on Fracture Toughness properties of Chopped Strand Mat (CSM) E-Glass Fiber reinforced Epoxy Resin Matrix Composites was evaluated using a Compact Tension (CT) specimen according to ASTM D5045 standard. Fracture toughness was conducted at six different compositions of composites. Three samples have to be tested for each composition of the composites. The entire specimens used have satisfied plain strain condition. The each composition of composites is fabricated by using hand layup technique. The epoxy resin and hardener are mixed in the weight ratio of 10:1. The result showed that the tensile strength for 4wt% aluminum oxide filled composite is more compared to 2wt%, 6wt%, 8wt%, 10wt% and neat composite. The fracture toughness of random-chopped mat E-Glass fiber composite material systems (GE, GEA4, GEA6, GEA8 and GEA10) were determined and reported in this manuscript. The fracture toughness of the GEA4 composite was found to be the highest fracture toughness followed by GEA2, GE, GEA6, GEA8 and GEA10 in the order of decreasing fracture toughness. It can be concluded that by the addition of small percentage of aluminum oxide filler there is marginal improvement in fracture toughness of glass fabric reinforced epoxy matrix up to 4wt%.