Investigation of static and dynamic properties of cenosphere reinforced polymer matrix composite beams

Polymer Matrix Composites (PMC) plays a conspicuous role in engineering application. Cenosphere reinforced polymer matrix composite has higher strength, stiffness, lesser density and also saving in cost. These particulate composites are manufactured to meet several structural requirements. Thus there is a need to study their static and dynamic properties. In this work polymer epoxy polymer composites reinforced with cenosphere are fabricated and their static and dynamic properties are analyzed. Experimental investigation involves fabrication of specimen of polymer matrix reinforced with cenosphere by varying volume fractions of 25%, 30%, 35%, and 40%. Tensile and compressive properties are tested on UTM as per ASTM standard. Microstructures of composites are assessed with SEM and also Model analysis of cantilever beam is performed as per ASTM standard in Engineering Data Management System (EDM 7.0) of Crystal Instruments to study variation of natural frequency in each case. The natural frequency results are compared with the commercially available ANSYS FE software by assigning the material propertied obtained by static analysis. Thus effects of volume fraction of cenosphere on static and dynamic characteristics of particulate composites are studied.