Inter laminar shear strength behavior of acid, base and silane treated E-glass fibre epoxy resin composites on drilling process

In this present work siliconized e-glass fibre reinforced epoxy resin composite has been prepared and compared with acid and base treated e-glass fibre epoxy composites to know the significant advantage of silane treatment on fibre. The composites were fabricated by laying 20, 30 and 40vol% of e-glass fibre into epoxy resin matrix. The e-glass fibre woven mat was surface treated by an amine functional coupling agent 3-Aminopropyletrimethoxysilane (APTMS). The fibres were surface treated by aqueous solution method and thermo assisted to create silinol groups. Similarly for acid treatment H2SO4 and base treatment NaOH with 1N concentration was used for surface treating the fibres. Effectiveness of silane treatment on glass fibre was compared by inter laminar shear strength test according to ASTM D 2344. Drilling process with varying diameter drill bit and varying cutting speed was applied to check the composites for their delamination resistance while machining. Maximum improvement of 15%, 12.5% and 9% (20, 30 and 40vol %) on ILSS was achieved for siliconized e-glass fibre reinforced epoxy composites. The scanning electron microscopy images revealed that no fibre pull out was present on fractured surfaces of composites which contains siliconized e-glass fibre. Similarly better dimensional accuracy was achieved on drilling process for composites contains siliconized e-glass fibre.