An Experimental Study on Tensile Strength of Graphene Reinforced Thermoset Epoxy Composite

In this study the effects of graphene incorporation into polymer matrix were analyzed. Different composite combinations were prepared by using graphene, as reinforcement and Bisphenol-A as matrix material by adding graphene in varying weight proportions such as 0.1wt%, 0.3wt%, 0.5wt%. Mechanical characterization was done by conducting tensile test on the prepared specimens. The experimental results clearly showed enhancement in the tensile strength and tensile modulus. The results show that the Youngs modulus increases with increase of the graphene weight fraction, hence enhances the mechanical properties of the composite. Significant increment in tensile properties was obtained for the addition of 0.5 wt% of graphene. The modelling of the specimens was carried out in CATIA V5 and the tensile test analysis was carried out using ANSYS 15 software. The experimental results and ANSYS results were compared.