Imperial College London
Portrait Picture

DrDeclanCarolan

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Mechanical Engineering

Visiting Lecturer
 
 
 
//

Contact

 

d.carolan

 
 
//

Location

 

City and Guilds BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

//

Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@inproceedings{Cattaneo:2019,
author = {Cattaneo, L and Carolan, D and Incerti, D and Rein, G and Fergusson, A},
title = {Experimental study of the mechanical and flammability behaviour of silica and rubber nanocomposites},
year = {2019}
}
Download

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - CPAPER
AB  - In the current work, an experimental study of the mechanical and flammability behaviour of silica and rubber nanocomposites was conducted. Single edge notched bend tests were performed to evaluate the fracture energy of the polymers. It was found that the addition of 24 wt.% of core shell rubber (CSR) increased the toughness from 0.19 ± 0.02 kJ/m2 to 5.44 ± 0.27 kJ/m2. Moreover, flammability testing using a cone heater showed that the time to ignition increases with silica content. This is thought to be primarily caused by an increase in thermal conductivity (or diffusivity) and the formation of a char mass barrier which hinders the flow of pyrolysis gases on the surface of the sample. Hybrid compounds containing both CSR and silica have also been tested and present relatively good mechanical performance as well as reduced flammability due to the presence of nano-silica, with a highest time to ignition of 111 ± 3 s. Poor toughness transfer to CFRP for the hybrid formulations was found, mainly due to the fracture process zone being constrained by inter-laminar spacing. Time to ignition in CFRPs increased compared to the bulk polymer and less damage on the degradation surface was recorded due to the presence of the carbon. The results demonstrate the possibility to manufacture composite materials that are resistant to fire, but still possess outstanding mechanical properties.
AU  - Cattaneo,L
AU  - Carolan,D
AU  - Incerti,D
AU  - Rein,G
AU  - Fergusson,A
PY  - 2019///
TI  - Experimental study of the mechanical and flammability behaviour of silica and rubber nanocomposites
ER  -
Download