Mechanical characterization of basalt fibre reinforced plastic

At the aim to evaluate the possibility to replace glass fibres in most applications, in this work, mechanical tests were carried out on comparable E-glass and basalt fibres reinforced plastic specimens. The latter were cut by laminates fabricated by the vacuum bag technology. The results were compared and the good performances showed by the basalt material in terms of young modulus, compression and bending strength, impact force and energy, lead to the thinking about a possible application in fields where glass composites are already largely applied. Also the results about the short-beam strength tests confirmed what said denoting an interfacial adhesion similar to the one between E-glass and epoxy matrix