Mechanical Behaviour Of Surface Modified Glass Bead/Epoxy Composites

Abstract

High strength hollow glass microspheres were analysed as fillers for epoxy composites. The composite mechanical behaviour was measured and the level of the filler/matrix adhesion as-sessed. The composites structures were observed by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) of fresh fracture surfaces. Different volume fractions of glass microspheres were used as filler.In order to improve the composites mechanical performance,chemical/physical changes were made on the glass microspheres surfaces, by using an epoxy compatible silane coupling agent,. The SEM analysis revealed that the applied surface treatment promoted a new level of adhesion. The results showed that the Young modulus of the composite wasn’t significantly affected by the microsphere silanization treatment and that the tensile strength of the composite decreased with increasing filler content, for both treated and non-treated fillers. The definition of structural design performance indices, such as Specific tensile modulus and Specific tensile strength al-lows a different perspective of the mechanical behaviour for these composites