Investigation of the tensile and the flexural properties of the glass/epoxy composites reinforced with nanoclay particles

In this paper, the influence of nanoclay Closite 30B on the tensile and the bending properties of 2D woven E- Glass/Epoxy laminated composite have been investigated experimentally. The glass/epoxy/nanoclay laminate have 12 layers and 60% fiber volume fractionis is manufactured by VRTM method. Fibers have a plain-weave configuration with density of 200 gr/m2, while the nano-epoxy resin system is made of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (epon 828) resin with jeffamine D400 as the curing agent and an organically modified MMT in a platelet form, namely Closite 30B. The nanoclay is dispersed into the epoxy system in a 0%, 3%, 5%, 7% and 7% ratio in weight with respect to the nano-matrix. The results have shown that Maximum to increase in the tensile and the bending properties are in 3% and 10% nanoclay content. The maximum to increase in the tensile strength, the failure strain and toughness are 13%, 7% and 27% respectively in 7% nanoclay content and in the modulus is 9% in 3% nanoclay content. Moreover, the maximum to increase in the flexural strength is 11% in 3% nanoclay content and in flexural modulus is 48% in 5% nanoclay content.