Effect of Silicon Coupling Grafted Ferric Oxide and E-Glass Fibre in Thermal Stability, Wear and Tensile Fatigue Behaviour of Epoxy Hybrid Composite

In this present study the effect of adding silicon coupling grafted ferric oxide and E-glass fibre in thermal stability, wear and fatigue behaviour of epoxy resin hybrid composite was investigated. The principal aim of this research was explicating the importance of silicon coupling grafted E-glass fibre and ferric oxide particle in thermal stability, wear and fatigue properties of epoxy hybrid composite. Ferric oxide particles of 800, 200 and < 100 nm and E-glass fibre of 600 GSM was used as second phase additions in epoxy resin with surface grafted condition. The surface grafting was done using 3-Aminopropyletrimethoxylane via aqueous solution method with acetic acid as pH adjuster. The improvement of 80% was observed in initial thermal stability of surface grafted E-glass fibre epoxy composite on comparing with un-modified glass-epoxy composite. Similar improvements were noted in rapid and final decomposition stages also. The lower specific wear rate of 0.002 was observed for surface grafted E-glass and ferric oxide added composite designation EGFI(11). The worn surface frcatograph explicated flat and smooth wear track surface for surface grafted composite designations. A highest fatigue life cycle of 18,724 is observed for surface modified composite designation EGFI(21). These thermally stable and high wear resistance and fatigue strengthened composites could be used in automobile, aircrafts and domestic applications.