Reinforced Vinyl Ester Resin Composites with

ABSTRACT: This article reports the mechanical characterization and sliding wear behavior of glass fiber-reinforced vinyl ester resins of varying acid values, based on epoxy-novalocs in the presence of three different comonomers (styrene, methyl acrylate and butyl acrylate) as reactive diluents. It presents a special account of the optimization of fabrication techniques of glass fiber-reinforced vinyl ester resin composites. It outlines optimum reaction conditions such as temperature, time, monomer type and initiator concentration. The experimental plan consisted of preparation of vinyl ester resin followed by the composite samples. Mechanical characterization was done and a comparison was made between the different samples. It was found that these composites have fairly good tensile and flexural properties. The composites with styrene and butyl acrylate as co-monomers had similar tensile strength which was higher than that of the composite with methyl acrylate. Hardness values of the three composites were almost the same without any significant effect of the co-monomer type. Volumetric wear rate was estimated for these samples under various test conditions. A steady wear rate regime after certain amount of sliding was observed all the three cases. KEY WORDS: phenol formaldehyde resin, sliding wear test, comonomers, glass fiber