Effect of Fabrication Techniques, Resin Types and Fiber Combinations on Mechanical Properties and Morphology of Glass Fiber Composites

Glass fiber composites were fabricated from two different manufacturing techniques, vacuum infusion and vacuum bag, two resin types (epoxy, vinyl ester), as well as and two fiber combinations (S-glass and E-glass). The analyzed properties were tensile modulus, strength as well as compression strength, with relation to sample morphology and fracture surface due to compression. The results showed that all variables and their interaction did not significantly influence tensile modulus, while manufacturing methods was the only significant variable influenced tensile strength. The results showed that vacuum infusion samples had better tensile strength than those produced by vacuum bag due to less resin and bubbles. In term of compression, the change on strength was highly contributed by resin type and fiber used on layer A. Composites samples with epoxy resin showed better strength than those of vinyl ester may be due to better initial resin property. While, imbalance transfer load and fiber density inhibiting resin penetration and causing resin rich samples produced lower compression strength for samples with S-glass applied to layer A than E-glass. Further analysis on fracture surface showed that most samples failed on compression test due to shear, kink and resin break