Mechanical Properties of Carbon Fiber Reinforced Hollow Glass Microsphere/Epoxy Composite

Composites of hollow glass microspheres/epoxy resin were reinforced with carbon fibers (CF) of 1 mm and/or 2 mm in length, with mass fraction: 0.2%, 0.5%, 1% and 3% for the two fibers, respectively. The effect of the length and content of fibers on the flexural strength and flexural modulus, compressive strength and compressive elastic modulus of composites was investigated by three-point bending tester and compression testing. The experimental results show that the addition of carbon fibers of two different lengths can significantly improve the flexural and compressive properties of composite materials. The flexural strength and compressive strength of the composite increase firstly and then decrease with the increasing mass fraction of carbon fibers, which reach a maximum value when the fiber mass fraction is 0.5%, and then decrease with the increasing content of carbon fibers. When the length of carbon fiber is 1mm and the fiber mass fraction is 0.5%, the flexural strength increased by 198% and the compressive strength increased by 110% in contrast to that without addition of carbon fiber. When the length of carbon fiber is 1mm, the change of fiber content has great influence on the flexural strength, compressive strength and compressive modulus of the composite. However, when the length of carbon fiber is 2 mm the effect of the change of fiber content on the flexural strength and compressive strength of composites is a little. © All right reserved.