Fracture toughness of nanofillers modified epoxy adhesives

• Main Author: Lim, Jarrod Hui Feng.
• Other Authors: J Soedradjad Djiwandono
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: DRNTU::Engineering::Aeronautical engineering::Materials of construction
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/46054
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Epoxy has been widely used by engineers all over the world due to their outstanding mechanical properties. Applications of epoxy include adhesives, paints and coatings, structural matrix materials in aerospace application, of which epoxy adhesives will be the main study in this project. Silica nanoparticles have been used in this project in order to study the effect of different composition of nanoparticles on the fracture toughness of the epoxy adhesives. Several compositions have been tested in this project and the optimum level of composition has been determined to be between 1.5wt% and 3wt%. In the course of the project, several factors like dispersion method of nanoparticles within the epoxy mixture during preparation and the creation of pre-crack on the specimen will also affect the result of the study.