Thermal Analysis of Glass Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Resin and Heavy Minerals based Radiation Shielding Composite Materials

Abstract

Manufacturing new composite materials from existing materials is a challenge for the majority of material specialists. As such, there are immense exploration tries arising in the field of composites to develop new materials with enhanced mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties. Among these composite materials, synthetic fiber reinforcement has become important and famous these days and got numerous applications as it has excellent mechanical properties, lightweight, uniqueness in adaptability, protection from impacts of corrosion, simple fabrication, and more when it is compared with other metallic materials. Consequently, it discovers more applications in different commercial and trend-setting innovation like armor, ballistic, helicopter blades, pneumatic Fiber built-up plastic materials is generally utilized in different designing applications due to their excellent performance and customized properties. As a reinforcing material, glass fiber has a wide scope of accessibility out of which bi-directional woven glass fiber reinforced polymer composites are getting acknowledgment in numerous modern applications because of low weight, simplicity of handling, and cost. These days explicit fillers/additive substances are added to the composite materials to reduce material expenses, upgrade and alter the nature of composites to an expected level, at times to improve processability and item performance. In this research work, glass fiber reinforced epoxy resin, and heavy minerals-based radiation shielding composite materials were fabricated by hand lay-up method. On account of thorough investigation, the proposed composites explore its 35% glass fiber, 10% boric acid and remaining 55% epoxy resin (weight basis) for control sample. Then 10% magnetite, 10% ilmenite, 10% garnet or 10% rutile was individually added to the composites and characterized. The tensile strength (TS) of magnetite, ilmenite, garnet and rutile containing composites showed 99.16 MPa, 89.63 MPa, 97.23 MPa and 92.66 MPa respectively as compare to tensile strength of control sample as 103.6 MPa. Thermal properties were investigated by Thermo Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) and surface morphology was studied by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) with conformity of mechanical characteristics by UTM. Due to more precise analysis, the TGA and DSC were utilized to measure the degradation and decomposition of materials based on glass fiber composites. In addition, the relationship between theoretical and experimental values was figured out using model equations and the acceptable level was presented as least- square. The analytical results and the investigational results in this research showed good agreements with each other. TGA results showed that the composites of control sample, magnetite, ilmentite, garnet, rutile were thermally stable until around at temperature 320 0c under nitrogen. Also due to addition of heavy minerals, the DSC has taken the heat at a similar rate though it was different in quantity. In heat flow, 5% weight loss temperature was lower for control sample in first stage and the temperature that of the composites such as magnetite, ilmentite, garnet and rutile were further lower as compare to control sample. SEM has been used to study the morphological properties of the 35% weight glass fiber+10% weight boric acid+55% weight epoxy (control composite) and composites containing 10% weight either of magnetite, ilmenite, garnet or rutile heavy minerals with it. The results showed good interfacial adhesion between heavy minerals and the matrix as well as good particle distribution in the matrix.