An investigation on post-fire behavior of hybrid nanocomposites under bending loads

This work focuses on residual bending properties of hybrid nanocomposites after intense heat conditions. Carbon fiber/epoxy-nanoclay and carbon fiber/epoxy-graphene nanosheets were manufactured. The nanoparticles employed were Cloisite 30B nanoclay and surface modified graphene nanosheets. The epoxy system was RemLam M/HY956. For short beam samples exposed to 800 KW/m(2) heat flux, for a various period of time up to 120 s, the addition of nanoparticles (nanoclay and graphene nanosheets) increased the unburned thickness from 0.16 mm (original) to 2.63 mm and 2.74 mm, respectively. When the two-dimensional (plates) samples were tested, the improvement on heat performance was reduced. The unburned thickness improved close to 10% with the presence of nanoclay. The addition of graphene nanosheets leads to a decrease in unburned thickness of 12.8%. This result can be due to the good thermal protection properties of the graphene nanosheets. Using SEM analysis, it was observed that when the hybrid nanocomposites were subjected to a large heat flux, nanoparticles remained trapped inside the char layers. Finally, the proposed model seems to overestimate the residual bending response by 8%. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.