Investigation of flexural and creep behavior of epoxy-based nano-sized CaTiO3 particles

Superior mechanical properties are the most needed in today’s new-made composites. Epoxy resins good properties make it a good choice to be used for making composites with desired requirements. However often, the inherent properties of the polymer alone are insufficient to meet the structural demands of an application. The major concern for polymeric material is its structural stability under constant loadings for long-term service. Targeting these issues, the current work investigates experimentally the flexural and creep behavior of polymer nanocomposites. For this purpose, different sets of polymer nanocomposites of epoxy resin (EPR) mixed with differing amounts of calcium titanate (CaTiO3) nano-particles and glass fiber (GF) were prepared. The flexural strength, flexural modulus, deflection at the peak were determined. Besides, the creep behavior was monitored by testing different samples for a duration of 24 ​h and the results show that good creep behavior was attended by adding glass fibre. Also, it was noted that the flexural strength at yield increases with increasing filler amount from 1 ​wt% to 7 ​wt%. However, the flexural strength at peak increases with increasing of filler up to 5 ​wt%. Moreover, by adding GF the flexural strength at the peak has a fluctuating change from decreasing to increasing at 0.1 ​wt % GF while adding 0.2 ​wt % of GF gives a continuous increase in strength.