International Conference on Recent Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Interdisciplinary Developments [ICRAMID - 2014]

Preparation and Characterization of TiO2

Particulate Filled Polyester Based Glass Fiber
Reinforced Polymer Composite
S.Srinivasa Moorthy
Associate Professor,
Department of Production Engineering,
Government College of Technology,
Coimbatore-641 013, Tamilnadu, India.
1ssrinivasamoorthy@yahoo.com

K.Manonmani
M.Sankar Kumar
Associate Professor,
Assistant Professor,
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Department of Production Engineering,
Government College of Technology,
Government College of Technology,
Coimbatore-641 013, Tamilnadu, India. Coimbatore-641 013, Tamilnadu, India.
manokmani@yahoo.co.in
msankarkumar@gmail.com

Abstract Polyester based glass fiber reinforced

polymer (GFRP) composites are widely used in marine and
automotive industries because of its strength to weight ratio with
lower price. In order to have the better properties of GFRP
composites, the particulate filler material titanium oxide (TiO2)
was added in unsaturated polyester resin with the fiber
reinforcement by hand lay-up process. The fiber content was
kept at 35 wt% constant with the fiber length of 5 cm. The
particulate was varied with 2 wt. %, 4 wt. %, 6 wt. %, 8 wt. %,
and 10 wt. %. Experiments were carried out to study the
mechanical properties like tensile strength, impact strength, and
Rockwell hardness. The chemical resistance analysis (CRA) was
carried out by weight loss method. The mechanical properties of
the hybrid reinforced composites were improved due to the fiber
content with increased particulate content. The influence of the
particulate content was more pronounced in the chemical
resistance.

reinforcement. The fiber reinforcement may bear the applied

stress and further transferred to the matrix. When the load is
increased the matrix may be failure; fibers are pulled out from
the matrix and form the bridge between the two faces of the
failure matrix. This failure is depend on the length of the fiber
in the matrix [2].
Further the fiber lengths are increased; the applied
stress may be bared with the increased fiber length
reinforcement. In addition, the particulate filler material is
also act as reinforcement, the mechanical; chemical and wear
properties are subject to improved [3]. Since the GFRP
composites are widely used in automotive [4] and industrial
applications, the strength of the composite can further be
improved with particulate filler material. The particulate filler
materials are mainly used for dimensional stability with
required properties [5-7] and the fiber reinforcement can
impart their suitable mechanical and physical characteristics
Keywords Glass fiber reinforced polymer (GFRP), Particulate to improve the matrix of composites [8-10].
In this work, the polymer composites were prepared
filler, Mechanical properties, Chemical resistance analysis (CRA).
with titanium oxide filler material with e - glass fiber
I. INTRODUCTION
reinforcement of 35 wt. % in the unsaturated polyester resin
The design and development of composite materials matrix. Experiments were carried out to evaluate various
is one of the most important advances in the history of tensile strength, impact strength, Rockwell hardness and
manufacturing materials. Composites are multifunctional chemical resistance.
materials having unprecedented mechanical and physical
properties that can be fitted to meet the requirements of a
II. EXPERIMENTAL DISCUSSION
particular application. Fiber reinforced composites have been
widely used for major structural application areas, such as A. Materials
aircraft, spacecraft, automotive, sporting goods, marine, and
E-glass fibers are the most common of all reinforcing fibers for
infrastructure.
polymeric matrix composites. The principle advantages of glass
Generally most of the fiber composites are produced fibers are low cost, high tensile strength, high chemical resistance,
with random orientation for engineering applications [1] and excellent insulating properties and high density compared to
because of the applications with stress distribution in the multi carbon fibers and organic fibers. The major composition of e-glass
directions. When composites are subject to applications, the fiber was silicon dioxide and aluminum trioxide. Chemical
applied stress on the composite may distribute to the fiber

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International Conference on Recent Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Interdisciplinary Developments [ICRAMID - 2014]

composition for e-glass fiber is SiO2, 54.5 wt%, + Al2O3,4.5

wt%+CaO,17 wt%+MgO,4.5wt%+B2O3,8.5 wt%+Na2O,0.5 wt%.
The titanium oxide metal powder was used as filler
material in the polymer matrix composites. The thermoset polyester
matrix, unsaturated polyester resin contains a number of C=C double
bonds was used as matrix. This double bond provides more strength
to distribute the stress in the composite matrix. The rate of a
chemical reaction can be changed by the substance known as a
catalyst. The catalyst used to increase the speed of reaction was
methyl ethyl ketone. Accelerator is a substance that increases the rate
of a chemical reaction. The decomposition rate of a catalyst was
increased by adding cobalt (II) napthanate.

tensile strength was improved due to the filler material act as

secondary reinforcement in the matrix whereas the e-glass fiber
reinforcement acts as primary reinforcement to distribute the applied
load into the matrix.
The effect of filler material in the polyester based polymer
composite is shown in figure 1. The results shows that the TiO2 filled
polymer composites with fiber reinforcement obtained the maximum
value of 0.151 GPa.
TABLE II
PEAK LOAD AND BREAKING LOAD OF VARIOUS DESIGNATION OF
COMPOSITES

B. Specimen Preparation
The standard size of the pattern was made; it was well cleaned
and kept dry to begin the composite preparation. Wax polish was laid
on the pattern. Then the random oriented 5 cm e-glass fiber of 35
wt% was distributed into the pattern. The accelerator was added to
the unsaturated polyester resin and stirred well. Then the catalyst was
added and stirred well again. The polymer matrix was applied
uniformly on the distributed fiber by a special brush.

Designation of
composites
C1
C2

Peak load
(KN)
7.12
7.93

Breaking load
(KN)
6.81
7.72

C3
C4

8.18

7.91

8.92
9.21

8.74
8.92

C5

Finally the polymer composites were kept 24 hours for curing.

After curing the composites were cut into the standard size. The same
procedure is used to produce different particulate content of 2 wt. %,
4 wt. %, 6 wt. %, 8 wt. %, and 10 wt. %. The designation of different
composites with different wt % of fiber content is shown in Table 1.

TABLE I
DIFFERENT COMPOSITES WITH DIFFERENT Wt% of FIBER
CONTENT

Designation of
composites
C1
C2
C3
C4
C5

Fiber
content(wt %)
35
35
35
35
35

Matrix
(wt %)
63
61
59
57
55

Particulate
(wt %)
2
4
6
8
10

Fig. 1 Effect of TiO2 particulate loading on the tensile strength.

C. Mechanical Characterization
Tensile test was carried out on a Shimadzu AG-IS 50 KN
Universal testing machine according to the guidelines of ASTM
D638. The impact test was done on the International equipments
impact testing machine with ASTM D256. Hardness of the
composite materials was measured using Rockwell hardness tester.
Three samples of every test were conducted on room temperature and
the average value was used. 2N of concentrated HCl and H2SO4 was
used to perform the chemical resistance analysis.

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

A. TENSILE STRENGTH
The tensile strength of the polyester based GFRP composite was
increased due to the addition of titanium oxide particulate and e-glass
fiber reinforcement. The strength was increased gradually with the
increase of filler material. The influence of TiO2 was studied with
respect to the fiber reinforcement. The values of peak load and
breaking load obtained of the composite is shown in table 2. The

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Fig. 2 Effect of TiO2 particulate and its distribution

International Conference on Recent Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Interdisciplinary Developments [ICRAMID - 2014]

Fig. 3 Effect of fiber reinforcement with TiO2 particulate in the polyester

matrix

Figure 3 and figure 4 shows the effect of particulate filler

distribution and fiber reinforcement with TiO2 particulate in the
polyester matrix.

Fig. 5 Impact strength values of various designations of composites

C. HARDNESS
The hardness of the composite was determined by Rockwell
hardness tester. The depth of penetration of the indenter of 3.175 mm
steel ball was used. The hardness of the composite was depends on
the matrix, fiber content and filler content [2]. The Rockwell
hardness values of the composite are shown in figure 6. The hardness
values were increased due to increase of filler content. The maximum
value of 66 RNH was obtained from the experiment.

Fig. 4 Micro structure image of TiO2 particulate filled glass fiber reinforced
polymer composite

When the pull load was applied to the composite material,

primarily the fiber may bear the load for which to retain the matrix,
then it can be transmitted to the filler material. The average length of
the filler material distribution is 10.37 m. If the load increase
further, the bond between the matrix may break to form the fiber pull
out. Figure 4 shows the micro structure image of TiO2 particulate
filled glass fiber reinforced polymer composite with tensile failure.

B. IMPACT STRENGTH
The impact strength of the polyester based GFRP
composite obtained from the experimental study is shown in figure 5.
The results ensured that the impact strength was progressively
increased due to increase of filler material. The experiment ensures
the maximum of 173.32 J/sq.cm was obtained from 35 wt% of fiber
content with 10 wt % of filler content. Because the sudden load
applied may be transmit to the primary fiber reinforcement and the
secondary reinforcement of filler material. These two reinforcements
may arrest the advancement of crack formation due to its higher
fracture imitation energy.

Fig. 6 Rockwell hardness values of different composites.

D. CHEMICAL RESISTANCE ANALYSIS (CRA)

Chemical resistance of the composites was determined HCl
and H2SO4by weight loss method. The weight of the hybrid
composites before and after the test was carried out and recorded.
The resistance of the composites from the HCl and H2SO4 are shown
in table 3and table 4. The CRA ensured the influence of the titanium
oxide particulate to pronounce the resistance.

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TABLE III
CHEMICAL TEST OF THE COMPOSITES WITH HCl

Designation
of
composites

Weight before
the chemical
test (g)

Weight after
the chemical
test (g)

Weight
loss in
(g)

C1

16.570

16.492

0.078

International Conference on Recent Advances in Mechanical Engineering and Interdisciplinary Developments [ICRAMID - 2014]

C2

18.060

17.962

0.098

C3

14.300

14.219

0.081

C4

15.077

14.979

0.098

C5

17.778

17.698

0.080

epoxy resin and glass fibre polyester resin composite materials,

European Polymer Journal, vol. 45, pp.149 154, Jan. 2009.
[9] Venkata Reddy, G., Venkata Naidu, S., Shobha Rani, T. and Subha,
M.C.S., Polyester Composites Compressive, Chemical Resistance,
and Thermal Studies on Kapok/Sisal Fabrics, Journal of Reinforced
Plastics and Composites, Vol.28, pp.1485-1494, 2009.
[10] Panthapulakkal, S. and Sain, M., Injection-molded Short Hemp
Fiber/Glass Fiber-reinforced Polypropylene Hybrid Composites Mechanical, Water Absorption and Thermal Properties, Journal of
Applied Polymer Science, Vol. 4 (103), pp. 2432-2441, Feb. 2007.

TABLE IV
CHEMICAL TEST OF THE COMPOSITES WITH H2SO4

Designation
of
composites
C1
C2
C3
C4
C5

Weight before
the chemical
test
(g)
16.620
18.065
14.872
15.074
17.800

Weight after
the chemical
test (g)

Weight
loss in (g)

16.494
17.943
14.748
14.947
17.683

0.126
0.122
0.124
0.127
0.117

It was observed that weight loss occurring was more to

sulphuric acid. Hence this polymer composite result reveals more
chemical resistance to hydrochloric acid.

IV. CONCLUSIONS
The new hybrid reinforced polymer composites were made from
e-glass fiber in the unsaturated polyester resin matrix with titanium
oxide reinforcement. The composites were produced by hand layup
method. The fiber content of the composites were kept 35 wt%
constant and the filler material content was varied with 2 wt. %, 4
wt. %, 6 wt. %, 8 wt. %, and 10 wt. %. Experiments were conducted
study the tensile strength, impact strength, and Rockwell hardness of
the polymer composite. The addition of filler material influenced
these properties and the results revealed the improved tensile strength,
impact strength and Rockwell hardness. The chemical resistance
analysis was carried out by weight loss method. The incorporation of
titanium oxide improved the better chemical resistance with HCl.

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