Wet lay-up technique for manufacturing of advanced laminated composites

Incorporation of nanofillers into laminated composites is expected to produce a material with improved performance for many potential industrial applications. The focus of this work is to produce advanced composites by simple wet lay-up technique. The impact of adding three different nanofillers (multi-wall carbon nanotubes (MWCNT), silicon carbide (SiC) and aluminum oxide (Al2O3),) on the thermal and mechanical stability of woven Kevlar KM2Plus/epoxy composites was investigated. Silicon carbide and aluminum oxide were added at different weight percentages up to 3wt%, whereas the addition of multi-wall carbon nanotubes was limited to 1wt%. The mechanical behavior was evaluated through three-point bending tests. The thermal stability was examined using differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) techniques. The results revealed that simple wet lay-up technique is a recommended alternative method for production of thermostable composites with improved thermomechanical performance. The improvement in thermomechanical stability increases with the nanofiller content. However, MWCNT composites showed an optimum content value of 0.5wt % after which the mechanical performance starts to degrade due to agglomeration.