Does anybody knows the differences in the mechanical properties of a reinforced fiberglass that uses silica - resin central structure and a conventional that uses fiberglass - resin structure
I have used resin with a silica filler for hand lay up, winding, compression molding and other forms of manufacturing. What I have found that silica as a filler does not overly effect the static mechanical properties of the structure. (- 10% or so). However, under cyclic loading there is a big reduction in life.
In the composite materials, fillers (fine particle with l/d near 1) can't impove strength of material but can change modulus and impact properties and specially thermal properties of materials.
A.M. Rezadoust
icomposite@yahoo.com