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Fire‐retardant carbon/glass fabric‐reinforced epoxy sandwich composites for structural applications
Author(s) -
Javaid Atif,
Ashraf Hafiz Tanveer,
Mustaghees Muhammad,
Khalid Arslan
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
polymer composites
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.577
H-Index - 82
eISSN - 1548-0569
pISSN - 0272-8397
DOI - 10.1002/pc.25806
Subject(s) - materials science , composite material , epoxy , fire retardant , ammonium polyphosphate , flexural strength , limiting oxygen index , pyrolysis , char , engineering , waste management
In this study, the fire‐retardant performance of lightweight sandwich composites, with modified epoxy impregnated carbon and glass fabric reinforcements and an aluminum honeycomb core, is investigated. The fire‐retardant performance of the fabricated sandwich composites is improved by treating carbon fiber reinforcements with phosphoric acid, and by impregnating the epoxy matrix with different loadings of ammonium polyphosphate (APP) fire‐retardant additive. The laboratory aging behavior of sandwich composites is also carried out to further investigate the degradation resistance of the panels under extreme conditions. Fire and mechanical properties of epoxy and sandwich panels are investigated using UL‐94, limiting oxygen index (LOI), thermal gravimetric analysis, compression tests, and three‐point bending tests. In the case of sandwich composites, a maximum of 1345 and 45.2 MPa flexural and compression modulus, respectively, are achieved with 10 wt% APP content in epoxy. Maximum 30% and 33% LOI values are achieved with 10% APP content in the epoxy and sandwich panels, respectively.