Investigation of Mechanical Properties of Silica Powder / Mica Filler Reinforced Epoxy Composite

Fibre reinforced polymer composites are used in a variety of application because of their advantages such as relatively low cost of production, easy to fabricate and superior strength compared to polymer resins. Reinforcement in polymer is either synthetic or natural. Synthetic fibre like glass, carbon etc. has high specific strength but their fields of application are limited due to higher cost of production. Recently there is an increase interest in natural fibre based composites due to the above said advantages. In this connection an investigation is carried out to make better utilization of silica powder for making value added products. The objective of the present research work is to study the physical and mechanical behaviour of silica powder and Mica filler reinforced epoxy based hybrid composites. The effect of reinforcement on mechanical properties like tensile strength, compression, hardness of composites and impact strength are studied.