STUDY OF THE INFLUENCE OF SPHERICAL INCLUSIONS ON MECHANICAL CHARACTERISTICS

The relevance of the article is due to the stable growth of the composite industry. Due to its high physical and mechanical characteristics, composite materials (CM) play a vital role in many areas of technology, such as aerospace, aviation, automotive, engineering and instrumentation, and the medical industry. When creating materials with the required mechanical and thermal characteristics, various additives and fillers are often used that affect the strength and elasticity of the samples obtained. In this paper, we study the influence of spherical inclusions in epoxy on the mechanical properties of the material. A composite structure of ED-20 epoxy with inclusions in the form of spherical particles of PBS-50 glass was considered. The characteristic particle size was about 50 pm. Within the framework of this study, batches of samples with a specific volumetric inclusion content of 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% were produced. Each batch consisted of 6 samples of the same type. To check the distribution of particle volume and inclusion studies, the microstructure of the thin section of the sample and separately the powder were studied. Using methods of modeling the process, the samples were tested for 3-point bending. Based on the results of mechanical tests, the elastic module, strength limit, and ultimate strains were obtained. As part of the study of materials, numerical calculations were performed using Digimat software (MSC Software) to model the structure and obtain effective material properties, as well as strength analysis using the finite element method in Ansys Workbench. The calculation was carried out for the volumetric content of inclusions of 5%, 10%, 15%, and 20% order and in the absence of inclusions. The obtained numerical results were compared with an experimental study. Based on the numerical calculations, the dependence of the percentage of inclusions on the strength limit and elastic module was obtained.