Issue 64

K. Dileep et alii, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 64 (2023) 229-239; DOI: 10.3221/IGF-ESIS.64.15

Mechanical and Fracture Characterization of Epoxy/PLA/Graphene/SiO 2 Composites

K. Dileep, A. Srinath Department of Mechanical Engineering, Koneru Lakshmaiah Education Foundation, KL Deemed to be University, Green Fields, Vaddeswaram, Guntur-522 502, India. dileep.kotte@gmail.com, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9279-2548 srinath@kluniversity.in , https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6284-256X N.R. Banapurmath, M. A. Umarfarooq, Ashok M. Sajjan Centre of Excellence in Material Science, School of Mechanical Engineering, K.L.E. Technological University, BVB campus, Hubballi-580031, India

nr_banapurmath@kletech.ac.in , https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1280-6234 umarfarooq.ma@gmail.com , https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9369-7913 am_sajjan@kletech.ac.in , https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1251-8803

A BSTRACT . This work investigated the effects of graphene and SiO 2 addition on the mechanical and fracture properties of epoxy (80%) – Poly Lactic acid (PLA) (20 %) composites. Epoxy-PLA composites were loaded with graphene and SiO 2 (0.1-0.5 wt. % with equal weightage of each filler), and were manufactured by bath sonication followed by manual casting. The tensile, flexural strength and fracture toughness of nanocomposites increased with an increase in filler concentration till it reached 0.3 wt. %. The addition of filler content higher than 0.3 wt. % drastically reduced the mechanical and fracture properties. The fractured surfaces from the tensile tests were examined using Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) imaging to understand the effects of filler addition. The numerical analysis was also performed to simulate the impact of filler concentration on the tensile strength of nanocomposites using representative volume element (RVE) in ANSYS workbench. K EYWORDS . Graphene, SiO 2 , Mechanical, Fracture testing, SEM.

Citation: A., Banapurmath, N. R., Umarfarooq, M. A., Sajjan, A. M., Mechanical and Fracture Characterization of Epoxy / PLA / Graphene / SiO 2 Composites, Frattura ed Integrità Strutturale, 64 (2023) 229-239. Dileep, K., Srinath,

Received: 30.11.2022 Accepted: 28.02.2023 Online first: 06.03.2023 Published: 01.04.2023

Copyright: © 2023 This is an open access article under the terms of the CC-BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

I NTRODUCTION

ecause of their wide range of desirable properties, synthetic and biopolymer-based materials play a vital role in daily life. When compared to traditional materials, these polymers have a high strength-to-weight ratio [1-2]. Because of the increasing scarcity of petroleum resources and the resulting pollution, petroleum-based polymers must be replaced with environmentally friendly and biodegradable materials [3]. B

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