Effect of nano-silica modification on the tensile property of SMA/GF/CF/epoxy super hybrid woven fabric composites

Tensile properties of epoxy casts together with shape memory alloy (SMA), glass (GF) and carbon (CF) woven fabric reinforced epoxy matrix super hybrid composites were investigated, respectively. In order to enhance the mechanical strength of this advanced material, two categories of modifications including matrix blending and fiber surface coating by nano-silica were studied. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and fiber pull-out tests were adopted to complement the experimental results, respectively. Experimental results reveal that the toughness of epoxy matrix is enhanced significantly by adding 2wt% nano-silica. The failure mechanism of SMA reinforced hybrid composites is different from that of GF/CF/epoxy composites. Compared with the matrix modification, the fibers modified by coating nano-silica on the surface have better tensile performances. Moreover, the fiber pull-out test results also indicate that composites with fiber surface modification have better interfacial performances. The modification method used in this paper can help to enhance the tensile performance of the mentioned composite materials in real engineering fields.