Thermal characterization of carbon nanoparticle infused GFRP using dynamic mechanical analyzer

GFRP is used in leading edges of wing and tail sections in almost all aircrafts, it has some unique properties relative to CFRP. In order to avoid delamination due to excessive temperature on the leading edge of the wing during landing, it needs to have good thermal stability. The entire objective of the study is to increase the thermal stability by having higher glass transition temperature and higher resistance to thermal creep strain. In this study, carbon nanopowder is infused into the epoxy matrix using the ultrasonic liquid processor for achieving homogeneity and a vacuum pump was further used to remove impurities. Initially, resin study was carried out, to study the effects of weight percentage of filler in the matrix. A Tensile study was carried out to estimate the strength at various weight percentages of nanofiller. A tensile study was conducted according to ASTM standard D638-1. Thermal characterization technique such as Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) was carried out on Glass Fiber Reinforced Plastic (GFRP) and GFRP infused with carbon nanopowder using a DMS 6100 Dynamic Mechanical Analyzer. GFRP panels were fabricated using hand lay-up method and compression molding. GFRP infused with different concentration of nanofiller content in the resin, varying from 0 to 1% by weight of the matrix were produced. Glass transition temperatures (T¬g) were observed from the DMA results for various filler content in the GFRP to study the variation in thermal stability. Two filler content was chosen based on literature survey as 0 and 0.5% for studying the effects of the proportion of carbon content in epoxy. Glass transition temperature of the matrix has increased by 2° Celsius for 0.5% by weight of nanofiller. Thermal creep was also simulated using DMA machine and the samples were subjected to a higher temperature than Tg so as to study creep over a period of 60 min. Creep graphs were not smooth, so that curve fitting tools like MATLAB were used to fit the appropriate curves. From the fitted curves it can be observed that the creep strain decreases considerably in the presence of nanofillers.