EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON MECHANICAL BEHAVIOUR OF CENOSPHERE REINFORCED EPOXY COMPOSITES

Cenosphere reinforced homogeneous epoxy composites are developed by simple mechanical stirring and pouring into standard mould sizes respectively. Investigations on mechanical characteristics of cenosphere reinforced epoxy composites and its application in the current manufacturing industries are presented. The effect of variations in reinforcement by weight percentage (wt. %) such as 20, 30, 40 and 50 in the epoxy matrix and their interactive influences on mechanical behavior of these composites has been studied systematically. The tensile strength, flexural strength and impact strength of the cenosphere reinforced epoxy composites were determined on universal testing and impact testing machine respectively. It was found that the cenosphere particles as fillers contributed significantly to improve the mechanical properties. It was also found that tensile, flexural and impact strengths decreases with increase in wt. % of reinforcement in matrix.