Thermal and environmental analyses of epoxy-based composites

This study aims to obtain pebble and epoxy composites with low thermal conductivity, low water absorption and minimal porosity. The effects of filler size, weight percentage of pebble and epoxy, aggregate size and curing time of the composites were evaluated. The ANOVA of S/N ratio was also performed to determine the effect of thermal conductivity, water absorption and porosity of the composites. The experiments were designed as per the Taguchi L27 orthogonal array. The results indicated that the effect of thermal conductivity improved slightly with 35% (wt) of epoxy resin present in the composite and the higher thermal conductivity was observed in the composite with 15% (wt) of epoxy resin. Water absorption and porosity results were found which showed that this composite with 15% (wt) epoxy resin content yielded better results when compared to the composite with 35% (wt) epoxy resin content. The embedded composites were characterized using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectra to study the effect of chemical treatment of pebble/epoxy composite. The morphological studies of the fractured surfaces of the epoxy composites were performed by scanning electron microscopy.