Investigation on DMA, Fatigue and Creep Behaviour of Rice Husk Ash Biosilica-Prickly Pear Short Fibre-Reinforced Epoxy Resin Composite

High toughness epoxy bio-composites are prepared using prickly pear short fiber and rice husk ash (RHA) biosilica particles for low cost and light weighted engineering applications. The prime objective of this work was to study the effect of RHA biosilica particles addition into the resin at different concentrations on dynamic mechanical, fatigue and creep behaviour of epoxy composites. The biosilica particles were prepared from the rice husk ash source followed by thermo-chemical method. Hand layup method was used to fabricate the composites and subjected to post cure at 120 °C for 12 h. According to the results the composite prepared with 5 vol% RHA biosilica particles showed a highest storage modulus and minimum loss factor, which indicated the positive effect of prickly pear fiber addition with RHA biosilica particle as a reinforcement material. Also, this composite had the lowest stain value of 0.28% for 100 min and over the time it shows upward trend in creep behaviour. Hence, composite shows greater elastic deformation and less viscous deformation. Moreover, the composite fabricated with 3 vol. % biosilica showed better fatigue behaviour with highest life counts of 42,847. These improved dynamic mechanical property and better creep and fatigue behaviour of composite could be useful in various engineering applications that require high load bearing capacity and biodegradability.