Tensile behavior of compression molded glass microballoon/HDPE syntactic foams

Abstract

Tensile behavior of glass microballoon (GMB) reinforced high density polyethylene (HDPE) matrix syntactic foams is investigated in the present study. GMB's having true particle density 350 kg/m3 are varied in 0, 20, 40 and 60 by vol. % in HDPE matrix using brabender and subsequently compression molded to form the syntactic foam sheets. Experimental results show that the modulus increases while strength decreases with increase in microballoon content. Syntactic foams present lower fracture strain as compared to neat HDPE. For designing syntactic foam microstructures with desired properties theoretical model can be effectively utilized.