Experimental Investigation of Talc Microparticles Effect on the Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Silica-Phenolic Composite Multilayers

Today, composite materials have attracted much attention in many industries, such as aerospace, automotive and marine industries, due to the strength to weight ratio, as well as the ratio of stiffness to high weight. Thermoset resins are among the most widely used resins in making composites based polymer. In the meantime, phenolic resins are the oldest industrial and thermosetting resins, which have important applications in various industries. The distinctive feature of this resin has resulted to its application as industrial insulators, thermal shields composites and ablative composites, and abrasive parts such as brake linings and clutch plates, and many other components. One of the applications of phenolic resins, especially resole with a relatively high thermal resistance, is the use of thermal insulation composites in thermal shields and hot air nozzles. The thermal insulation composites are often phenolic resins and their reinforcement is mainly asbestos fibers with high thermal resistance. Today, due to the carcinogenicity of asbestos fibers and the problems caused by its use, these fibers are removed from the list of reinforcing insulators, and silica fibers, a new product with an asbestos thermal stability and no environmental problem, have replaced instead of them. In this study, talc mineral micro-particles with a mean particle size of 8 μm as reinforcing the mechanical properties and thermal stability, were added to 25, 15 and 35 phr in phenolic resins in several layers of silica-phenolic composites.