Study on thermal and mechanical characteristics of different composite materials for thermal insulating applications

Abstract

Composite materials play a vital role in present industrial applications due to their positive properties when compared with the existing or conventional materials used for the same applications such as weight, strength, and flexibility in design. In this work, a laminate was prepared by considering three different fibers including, basalt, carbon, and glass fiber. The order of orientation is three different forms 40°, 60°, and 90°. The stacking of the fibers is of the same degrees and it is subjected to two different sets of tests such as failure analysis and thermal analysis. The results revealed that, increasing basalt fiber content (up to 50% wt.) reduced the thermal conductivity of the composite while reducing the glass fiber content increased the thermal conductivity. In addition, the orientation of 90^o showed the best tensile strength and elongation over 40^o and 60^o.