Fabrication and Mechanical Characterization of Short Fiber-Glass Epoxy Composites

In this article, the epoxy-based composites were developed by combining the short E-glass fibers into epoxy matrix. The fiber content in the composite was varied from 0.05 to 0.40 by weight fraction, and the variation of mechanical properties, such as tensile, flexural, impact, and hardness properties, in each case, were investigated. Chemical analyses of the constituents by X-ray spectroscopy and a microstructural analysis of the fracture area complete the mechanical tests. The obtained results show that although ultimate tensile strength and flexural strength of the composites decreased with increasing fiber content, Young’s and flexural moduli increased. The reduction in the failure strain is caused by an embrittlement effect as the stiffness of the composites is improved when the fiber weight fraction is increased. In the investigated glass fiber volume fraction range, the notched Charpy impact energy of composites increases with an increase of the glass fiber volume fraction. The morphological analysis of the tensile fracture surfaces of the composites observed using scanning electron microscopy brings an important clarification that explains the obtained behavior. The micromechanics analysis of behavior of epoxy composites reinforced with short glass fibers was performed using Digimat 6.0 software, and the obtained results of Young’s modulus revealed a good convergence of the calculated and measured values.