Tensile behavior of cenosphere/epoxy syntactic foams

Abstract

Tensile behavior of syntactic foam composites are very critical to the engineering applications. The fracture modes and failure mechanisms under tension must be fully understood in order to realize the potential of such composites. In the present work, syntactic foam composites are fabricated using as received and surface modified hollow cenospheres embedded into epoxy matrix. Combinations of cenosphere volume fraction (0, 20, 40 and 60%) and surface modification are studied. Experimental results reveal that modulus of both untreated and treated syntactic foams increases with increase in cenosphere volume fraction compared to neat resin. Strength values of syntactic foams show decreasing trend compared to neat resin. However, treated syntactic foams demonstrated better results compared to untreated ones attributing to good bonding between matrix and filler. Scanning electron microscopy reveal brittle fracture for all the syntactic foams. � 2018 Author(s).