The Thermal Properties of Glass Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Composites with and without Fillers

Summary An experimental study has been carried out in order to investigate the thermal properties of glass fiber reinforced epoxy (G-E) composite with inorganic nano and micro fillers namely silica, alumina and aluminatrihydrate. The hybrid composites were fabricated by ultrasonication and pultrusion techniques. Morphological characterization was carried out by Scanning electron microscope (SEM) and the micro-graphs revealed an improved dispersion quality of fillers in the G-E composite. The thermal conductivity, glass transition temperature, thermal stability and coefficient of thermal expansion were investigated as per ASTM standards. The results reveal that the best performance was found to be in Al2O3 + SiO2 + ATH + G-E hybrid composite.