Abstract:
In the last few decades composite materials and the design and development technology have received great attention due to their numerous advantages over metallic materials. With the advancement of material processing technology, various micro and nanoparticles are now incorporated as filler materials into various matrix materials to improve the properties of composite materials results in excellent material performance. A variety of modern composite materials are existing nowadays in both structural and nonstructural elements for day-to-day life application in industrial as well as household appliances. The major advantages of polymeric composite materials such as low cost, ease of fabrication, high strength and modulus, reasonable fatigue and fracture resistance properties with respect to their density and excellent formability make them suitable for structural application substituting the need of metallic materials. Past researches indicate that spectacular enhancement and improvement in mechanical properties are achievable by varying small amount of filler particles concentration. The resulting mechanical properties of the composites are closely related to the microstructure achieved in processing of these materials. Failure of the polymeric composite depends on the percentage of filler materials incorporated into the matrix material although most of the cases it is observed that the high percentage of filler materials decreases the ductility of the composite materials. The mechanical properties of polymer composite depend on the filler-matrix material properties, matrix-to-filler interface and orientation of the filler materials and hence the properties of the end product made govern by the composite used. Over the past decade, several composite materials have been developed and commercialized with specific application. However, there is serious limitation of finding a low cost composite material that can substitute the need of metallic materials for fabrication of automotive and other mechanical parts.
