Enhancing Flexural Performance of Basalt/Glass Fiber Hybrid Nanocomposites with MWCNTs+SiO2 Nanoparticles by Box-Behnken Design of RSM

In recent years, manufacturers in advanced manufacturing industries like aircraft, automotive, marine, and construction have shown significant interest in advanced materials that are lightweight, strong, durable, environmentally friendly, and cost-effective. The primary objective of the present work is to fabricate and optimize the manufacturing process parameters on flexural performance of hybrid basalt/glass fiber strengthened polymer nanocomposites filled with multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) and nano-silica (SiO2) as per ASTM standards. The uniform distribution of nanofillers in epoxy is achieved by an ultrasonicator followed by a magnetic stirrer. The Box-Benkhen Design of Response Surface Methodology optimization technique was used for the design of experiments by considering filler weight (0%, 1%, and 2%), molding temperature (400C, 600C, and 800C), molding pressure (5MPa, 15MPa, and 25MPa) respectively. The samples were fabricated using the manual lay-up method followed by compression molding for a total of 17 experiments in the design of the matrix. The value of flexural strength obtained is maximum at 398MPa with the process parameters of filler weight 1%, molding pressure 25MPa, and molding temperature 800C which is increased by 20%. It is also observed that the minimum flexural strength of the hybrid nanocomposites was achieved at 320MPa using specific process parameters, including a filler weight of 0%, a molding temperature of 600C, and a molding pressure of 5MPa. It is concluded that the weight percentage of the MWCNTs+SiO2 nanofiller has the greatest impact on flexural strength, followed by molding pressure and molding temperature.