EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF BISPHENOL BASED POLYMER MATRIX COMPOSITES FOR MECHANICAL AND INSULATION PROPERTIES

E-glass fibre and Bisphenol-A have a wide range of applications when it comes to fabricating composite laminates due to their superior chemical and mechanical properties. Bisphenol-A can alter insulation properties at lower filler volume. In the current endeavour, an investigation was made into the effect of Bisphenol concentration on mechanical and insulation properties. The composites have different compositions of Bisphenol in the range of 1% to 3%. Conventional hand layup process was used to fabricate the laminates and were tested as per ASTM. The experimental results show that there is only marginal increase in hardness and tensile strength with increase in weight proportions from 1% to 3% of Bisphenol powder and it can be concluded that the Bisphenol is not contributing to the significant changes in Mechanical properties. SEM analysis was carried out to study the morphological features of the tested specimens. Further, the stellar role played by the addition of Bisphenol is observed through the tests carried out for determining the insulation properties. It was observed that there was a significant increase in the insulation properties of the laminates with the increase in the weight proportions of Bisphenol and it is attributed that the laminates thus fabricated will find applications in the industries that manufacture thermal resistant materials.