Experimental Investigation of Effect of nanoclay on Ballistic Properties and Mechanical Properties of 2D Woven Glass/Epoxy Composites

In this paper, the influence of nanoclay Closite 30B on ballistic impact behavior of 2D woven E- Glass/Epoxy laminated composite has been investigated experimentally. The glass/epoxy/nanoclay laminate nanocomposites have 12 layers and 60% fiber volume fraction is manufactured by VRTM method. Fibers have a plain weave configuration with density of 200gr/m2, while The epoxy resin system is made of a diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (DGEBA), Epon 828, as the epoxy prepolymer and a polyoxypropylene diamine with average molecular weight of 400 gr/mol, Jeffamine D-400, as the curing agent. The nanoclay Closite 30B is dispersed into the epoxy system in a 0%, 1%, 2%, 3%, 5% and 7% ratio in weight with respect to the matrix. Morphological studies using XRD revealed that nanostructures are mostly in intercalated form rather than exfoliated form. In additional to tensile test, ballistic impact test is carried out on the samples by flat-ended projectile with 14gr mass and 9.77mm diameter in 130m/s, 142m/s and 155m/s velocities. The results have shown that not only the mechanical properties, but also ballistic impact resistance can be improved with adding nanoclay.