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In this paper, the tensile properties of 2D woven glass epoxy composite reinforced by two different nanoparticles have been investigated and compared. Hand lay-up method has been used to manufacture nanocomposites with 12 layers of 2D woven glass fibers with 40% fiber volume fraction. The nano-epoxy resin system is made of epon 828 resin with jeffamine D400 as the curing agent. The composites were reinforced by adding organically modified montmorillonite nanoclay (Closite 30B) and nanosilica (SiO2) particles. The nanoclay particles were dispersed into the epoxy system in a 0%, 3%, 5%, 7% and 10% ratio in weight with respect to the matrix, while the spherical nanosilica particles were dispersed into the epoxy system in a 0%, 0.5%, 1% and 3% ratio in weight with respect to the matrix. The results show that low loading of nanoclay decreases the mechanical properties of nanocomposite, while significant improvements of nanocomposite mechanical properties are shown in low loading of nanosilica. Tensile strength and toughness of nanocomposite increase by 7% and 10% after adding 5 wt.% nanoclay. Loading of 0.5 wt.% nanosilica cause 10% and 27% improvement in tensile strength and toughness of nanocomposite.

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In this research, effect of adding silica nano-particles on the mode II interlaminar fracture toughness of epoxy matrix composites reinforced with glass fibers was experimentally studied. Hand lay-up method has been used to manufacture nanocomposites with18 layers of 2D woven glass fibers with 40% fiber volume fraction. The nano-epoxy resin system is made of diglycidyl ether of bisphenol A (epon 828) resin with jeffamine D400 as the curing agent. Nanosilica particles are dispersed with 0, 0.5, 1 and 3 wt.% (of epoxy resin) to study the effect of nanosilica content on fracture toughness. Also a series of nanocomposites with 1 wt.% nanosilica content and contained 55 vol.% glass fibers were fabricated to investigate the effect of fiber volume fraction on results. End notch flexure (ENF) test was adopted for the measurement of mode II interlaminar fracture toughness. The results show that high loading of nanosilica has no significant effect on the interlaminar fracture toughness of nanocomposites while the addition of 0.5 wt% nanosilica enhanced the interlaminar fracture toughness about 36% compared to the neat composites. Decreasing fiber volume fraction improved interlaminar fracture energy.