Composites: Part B 59 (2014) 1220

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Composites: Part B
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/compositesb

Elastic properties and buckling load evaluation of ceramic particles lled

glass/epoxy composites
Metin Sayer
Department of Mechatronics Engineering, Pamukkale University, 20070 Denizli, Turkey

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 19 July 2013
Received in revised form 1 October 2013
Accepted 12 November 2013
Available online 22 November 2013
Keywords:
A. Glass bers
A. Particle-reinforcement
B. Mechanical properties
B. Buckling
C. Finite element analysis (FEA)

a b s t r a c t
In the current investigation, the effects of the various ceramic particles on elastic properties and load carrying capabilities of lled E-glass/epoxy composite plates are determined experimentally and numerically. The composite plates are lled with 0% (unlled), 5%, 10% and 15% particle weight fractions
(based on the weight of composite), such as silicon carbide (SiC), which has two particle sizes, aluminum
oxide (Al2O3) and boron carbide (B4C). The results indicate that the load carrying capability of composites
are signicantly inuenced by particle weight fractions, different particle sizes and different ceramic particles (llers). Accordingly, the load carrying capabilities of composites lled with 10 wt% ceramic particles are found higher for small particle sizes. Moreover, the addition of 10 wt% boron carbide (B4C)
particles to composites increases the critical buckling load value of composite up to 42%.
2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
As a part of machine is produced from a composite material,
rigid and lightweight properties will come to the fore for this part.
During the service life, this part must fulll the all duties without
damage and the system must remain in stable equilibrium. However, the part may be subjected to compressive loadings and this
loading may be large enough to cause the part to deect laterally
or sideways. The ceramic particles (llers), such as silicon carbide
(SiC), aluminum oxide (Al2O3) and boron carbide (B4C), are mostly
utilized as reinforcement elements to enhance the load bearing
capacity of the parts. These llers, which are continuous or short
bers, whiskers or particles, are added into the metalmatrix composites to increase the properties of the single component alloys.
With adding particles as reinforcement, metalmatrix composites
having lower density, high modulus and high strength are
expected to be achieved [15].
Nowadays, the ceramic particles are also used in order
to increase the elasticity moduli and strength of polymer composites. However, the tribological applications of resinmatrix composites are usually limited due to the relatively poor thermal stabilities
and friction characteristics. Several researches have proposed that
many hard particles composed of ceramic or metal particles can
be used as llers to modify the polymeric matrix composites [6,7].
The llers can be added to resins to signicantly improve fracture

Tel.: +90 258 2963065; fax: +90 258 2963263.

E-mail address: msayer@pau.edu.tr
1359-8368/$ - see front matter 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesb.2013.11.016

toughness, impact resistance and electrical or heat transfer properties, resin stiffness, wear resistance, and to reduce the thermal
expansion coefcient [811]. The addition of ller particles to polymeric matrices can produce a number of desirable effects, and this
issue has been widely investigated in the past decades.
In particular, during the production of polymer matrix composites, the ceramic particles are added to a certain amount into the
resin and in this way the mechanical properties of composites,
such as stiffness and strength values can be increased. These values
are inuenced from particle weight fractions (or volume fraction of
llers), different particle sizes or different ceramic llers, or interfacial compatibility between the particles and the resin [1216].
Chisholm et al. [17] have investigated the mechanical properties
of satin weave carbon fabricate reinforced laminated composites
which are loaded by micro and nanosized SiC llers varied from
1.5% to 3.0% by weight of epoxy matrix. They observed from the
tensile and exural testing that with 1.5 wt% loading, an average
of 2030% increased the mechanical properties according to neat
system. Suresha et al. [18] have researched the mechanical and
three-body abrasive wear behavior of E-glass fabric reinforced
epoxy (GE) and silicon carbide lled E-glass fabric reinforced
epoxy (SiCGE) composites. The measured tensile test results of
GE and SiCGE composites showed that tensile strength increased about 28% and tensile modulus increased about 65%.
Asi [19] investigated the mechanical properties of glass/ber
reinforced epoxy composite lled with different proportions of
Al2O3 particles, experimentally. That study showed that compared
with the exural properties of the unlled glass ber reinforced

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M. Sayer / Composites: Part B 59 (2014) 1220

Table 1
The physical properties of ceramic particles.
Ceramic particles (llers)

Modulus of elasticity E (GPa)

Density q (gr/cm3)

Poissons ratio m

Particle size (lm)

SiC (silicon carbide)

Al2O3 (aluminum oxide)
B4C (boron carbide)

400
390
450

3.21
3.65
2.51

0.15
0.21
0.16

3 and 29.2
4
3.5

epoxy composite, exural strength and exural modulus were

respectively increased by 33% and 78% with the addition of
10 wt% of Al2O3 particle in the matrix. The effects of ller loading
on the exural and physical properties of rapeseed-lled thermoplastic polymer composite panels were investigated by Zabihzadeh
et al. [20]. Test results showed that the modulus of elasticity and
exural strength were mainly inuenced by the ller content,
and the exural strength was shown to decrease signicantly with
an increase in the ller content, while the exural modulus
increased insignicantly.
Patnaik et al. [21] have studied the effects of different ceramics,
which are yash, aluminum oxide and silicon carbide particles, on
the mechanical properties of glass/polyester composites. The study
revealed that the composite with low yash content (10 wt%)
exhibits improved exural strength. Effects of silicon carbide and
aluminum oxide llers on tension, exural, compression, and impact properties of woven jute fabric reinforced epoxy composite
have been investigated experimentally by Ahmed et al. [22]. They
have prepared several laminates by hand lay-up method by varying the percentage of ller addition. The results of the tests indicated that addition of ller has signicant effect on these
properties and laminate with 10 wt% of ller (based on resin)
exhibited the highest properties. However, the properties were
found to decrease beyond 10 wt% of ller loading.
Bhagyashekar et al. [23] have reported the effects of different
type of llers, both metallic and non-metallic, with different percentage of ller loading in a epoxy matrix, with a view to bring
out the similarities and disparities in their physical and mechanical
properties. Test results showed that the tensile and exural
strength of the particulate composites degraded with ller loading,
whereas the modulus (both tensile and exural) of the composites
increased with the ller loading in the range of 1040% ller contents. Nourbakhsh et al. [24] have studied the inuence of ller
particle sizes (40, 50, and 60 meshes) and coupling agent concentration (0 and 2 wt%) on the mechanical properties of composite.
They prepared the specimens having 30 wt% wood our of poplar,
which were mixed with polypropylene and polypropylene grafted

maleic anhydride (PP-g-MA) as coupling agent. As a result, they

found that strength properties of the composites can be improved
moderately by adding 2 wt% PP-g-MA and smaller ller particles
provided higher tensile modulus than the larger sized ller.
As seen from the above literature survey, much of the investigations are related to the effects of the various volume fractions of
llers, various particle sizes or different ceramic llers on wear
resistance, tensile and exural moduli or strengths, to reduce the
thermal expansion coefcient. But, there is not found a subject related to the load carrying capabilities of lled composite plates in
the open literature. At this reason, in the present study, the effects
of the various ceramic particles, such as silicon carbide (SiC) which
has two particle sizes, aluminum oxide (Al2O3) and boron carbide
(B4C), on elastic properties and critical buckling loads of lled
E-glass/epoxy composite plates are investigated both experimentally and numerically. The particle weight fractions of the
composite plates are chosen as 0% (unlled), 5, 10 and 15 wt%.

2. Experimental study
2.1. Materials
For making the ceramic particles lled composite laminated
plates, unidirectional E-glass fabric with 600 warp tex and 200
weft tex was used as reinforcement material, purchased from METYX, Telateks A.S., Turkey. The total areal weight of fabric is 301 gr/
m2 (3%). An epoxy matrix based on Epo-Kem 1000 liquid epoxy
resin and KEH 2000 Polyamide epoxy hardener was used. These
materials were supplied by PAG Chemical Industry Ltd., Turkey.
The ceramic particles such as silicon carbide SiC, aluminum oxide
Al2O3 and boron carbide B4C were added into epoxy resin, supplied
by Nurol Technology A.S., Turkey. The ceramic particles having
sizes of 3 and 29.2 lm for SiC, 4 lm for Al2O3 and 3.5 lm for B4C
are used in order to investigate the effects of particle sizes and different ceramic llers. The physical properties of ceramic particles
(llers) are given in Table 1.

2.2. Fabrication of composite plates

Fig. 1. A photo concerning the fabrication of a composite plate.

In this study, ceramic lled E-glass/epoxy composite plates

were fabricated in dimensions 500 mm  1000 mm, as 8 layers at
ATARD Defence and Aerospace Inc., Eskisehir-Turkey. As ceramic
particles, two types of silicon carbide (SiC), aluminum oxide
(Al2O3) and boron carbide (B4C) with 5 wt%, 10 wt% and 15 wt%
of composite were added into epoxy resin in order not to increase
dramatically the viscosity of resins and bring a processing problem.
A weighed amount of the particles was ratio of the weight of the
particles to the total weight of the lled composites. The mixing ratio for resin-to-hardener in weight was 100:45. After incorporating
the particles and hardener into the resin, the mixtures were thoroughly mixed for 30 min using a mixer. For preparation of lled
composite laminates, eight E-glass fabrics were put on a table with
smooth surface and impregnated by hand successive plies,
with mixture resin. After the impregnation, a plastic vacuum
bag was placed on top of the prepared composite plates and vacuum was applied. Thus, high quality and void-free composite

14

M. Sayer / Composites: Part B 59 (2014) 1220

plates were fabricated. A photo concerning the fabrication of a

composite plate is given in Fig. 1.
The unlled E-glass/epoxy composite plate was also fabricated
in the same manner. Finally, each composite laminated plate was
cured at room temperature for 24 h. The nominal thickness of
the composite plates was measured as 2.75 mm. The mechanical
and buckling test samples were cut with a circular diamond blade
saw from the fabricated composite plates. In order to avoid catastrophic inuence of surface aws, the samples edges were carefully nished using emery papers.
A burn-off test (ASTM D 3171-99) was conducted to determine
the ber and particle contents of the composites at 580 C. After
this process, ber weight fraction of the unlled composites was
determined as about 64%. Besides, for lled composites, the particle weight fractions of the composites were detected about 5 wt%,
10 wt% and 15 wt%, as expected.

sion test. And then, shear modulus G12 is calculated as per Eq. (1)
[26]. The dimensions of samples and loading direction are given
in Fig. 3d [25].

where E1 and E2 are the longitudinal and transverse modulus of

composite respectively, and m12 is in-plane Poissons ratio.
For each composite, ve identical samples were tested and
average test results were reported, and given in Table 2. In general,
since the 3-direction can be treated just as if it were the 2-direction
for a unidirectionally reinforced composite, the out-of-plane properties are related to the in-plane properties. So, out-of-plane elasticity modulus E3, Poissons ratio m31 and shear modulus G13 are
equal to E2, m12 and G12, respectively [26].

2.3. Determination of elastic properties

2.4. Experimental buckling tests

The elastic properties (engineering constants) of E-glass/epoxy

composite plates, including longitudinal and transverse modulus,
in-plane shear modulus and Poissons ratios were determined under static loading conditions. The test samples were prepared from
unidirectional composite plates in accordance with the ASTM standards and loaded in tension at a constant crosshead rate of 1 mm/
min. The tension tests were carried out in Department of Mechanical Engineering of Pamukkale University by using Instron 8801
model Tensile Testing Machine of 50 kN load capacity, as seen in
Fig. 2.
The tension tests were performed for each combination of unlled and lled E-glass/epoxy composites according to the ASTM
D3039. For a unidirectionally reinforced composite sample, the
coordinates can be seen in Fig. 3a. In this gure; 1, 2 and 3 denote
the bers direction, normal to the bers direction in the laminate
plane and out-of-plane direction, respectively. The longitudinal
elasticity modulus (in the ber direction 0) E1 were obtained using
unidirectional composite samples (Fig. 3b) [25]. The transverse
elasticity modulus (in the transverse direction 90) E2 were obtained by using transverse unidirectional samples (Fig. 3c) [25].
The testing machine has a biaxial video extensometer which is
used to measure the strains. The in-plane Poissons ratios of composites were determined by using the biaxial video extensometer.
A photo concerning the mechanical testing of a composite sample
is shown in Fig. 2. In order to determine the in-plane shear
modulus G12 of composites, off-axis elasticity modulus Ex of
samples that have ber orientation 45 is obtained from the ten-

The critical buckling loads of unlled and lled E-glass/epoxy

composite plates were determined experimentally. The buckling
test samples were cut with a circular diamond blade saw from
the fabricated composites. The dimensions of the buckling test
samples are 40 mm  200 mm in width  length. The nominal
thickness of the samples is 2.75 mm. The buckling samples were
tested by applying compression loads in bers direction using
Instron 8801 model Tensile Testing Machine of 50 kN load
capacity.
For axial loading, test samples were placed between two stiff
machine heads, of which the upper one was xed during the test,
whereas the lower head was moved upwards by servo hydraulic
cylinder. The samples were clamped at 50 mm distance from the
top and bottom edges by wedge grips (as seen in Fig. 4). Thats
why, effective buckling length is 100 mm. All test samples were
loaded until buckling at a constant compressive speed of 1 mm/
min, and loaddisplacement curve graphics were plotted. For each
unlled and lled composites, three identical samples were tested
and average results were reported. A buckling photo of a composite
sample is shown in Fig. 4.
The critical buckling load of each composite was determined
from the loaddisplacement curves. The initial point of the load
deection curve deviated straight line represents the critical buckling load. The comparative loaddisplacement curves of aluminum
oxide lled and unlled composites are plotted as an example, in
Fig. 5. In that gure, determination of critical buckling load is
shown, for only 10 wt% Al2O3 lled composite (Pcr = 10.02 kN).

G12

1
4
Ex

 E11  E12 2Em112

Fig. 2. A photo concerning the mechanical testing of a composite sample.

M. Sayer / Composites: Part B 59 (2014) 1220

15

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Fig. 3. The geometry and dimensions of samples, (a) the coordinates of a unidirectionally reinforced composite sample, (b) for longitudinal modulus E1, (c) for transverse
modulus E2 and (d) for in-plane shear modulus G12.

2.5. Numerical buckling analysis

The nite element analysis is conducted to investigate the
buckling behavior of composite samples under compressive loads.
The numerical buckling loads of composites were obtained by
using ANSYS 13.0 commercial software in order to compare with
the experimental buckling loads. In the numerical analysis, Eigenvalue buckling analysis was performed for each unlled and lled
composite samples. For element type, it was selected SHELL181,
which is used for modeling of layered composite. It is a 4-node element with six degrees of freedom at each node: translations in the
x, y, and z directions, and rotations about the x, y, and z-axes. Each

composite sample was modeled in dimensions 40 mm  100 mm,

as 8 layers, and areas were meshed using element size length of
1 mm. The models were clamped (All DOF constrained, UX =
UY = UZ = ROTX = ROTY = ROTZ = 0), along the bottom edge and
also clamped (UX = UZ = ROTX = ROTY = ROTZ = 0, UY 0) along
top edge. The compression load was applied uniformly on the
upper line as a pressure of one unit value. The boundary conditions
and applied load on a model are shown in Fig. 6a. The solution was
done in order to determine the buckling loads in the rst mode,
and so the critical buckling loads of all models were obtained. In
Fig. 6b and a buckled model can be seen for clampedclamped
boundary conditions.

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M. Sayer / Composites: Part B 59 (2014) 1220

Table 2
The elastic properties of unlled and lled E-glass/epoxy composite plates.
Sample ID

Quantity of ller (wt%)

E1 (MPa)

E2 = E3 (MPa)

G12 = G13 (MPa)

m12

m21 = m31

Unlled
3SiC

0%
5% 3 lm SiC
10% 3 lm SiC
15% 3 lm SiC

30,100
34,785
35,700
31,918

7405
8743
9795
8401

2879
2123
2255
2075

0.32
0.32
0.32
0.31

0.079
0.080
0.087
0.082

29SiC

5% 29.2 lm SiC
10% 29.2 lm SiC
15% 29.2 lm SiC

32,650
32,890
29,950

7880
8420
7550

2242
2432
2213

0.32
0.32
0.31

0.077
0.081
0.078

AO

5% Al2O3
10% Al2O3
15% Al2O3

34,150
37,650
31,924

9212
9936
9013

2491
2551
2370

0.32
0.32
0.32

0.086
0.084
0.089

BC

5% B4C
10% B4C
15% B4C

36,620
41,985
35,230

9425
10,043
9266

2617
2715
2486

0.32
0.32
0.31

0.082
0.076
0.082

Fig. 4. A buckling photo of a composite sample.

Y
11

Pcr

10
9

Load (kN)

(a)

(b)

Fig. 6. A modeled composite sample by using ANSYS, (a) boundary conditions and
loaded state and (b) buckled model.

5
4
Unfilled

A-4
5 wt%

2
10 wt%
A-8

15 wt%
A-12

0
0

0.5

1.0

1.5

Displacement (mm)

fractions of 5%, 10% and 15% (based on the weight of composite),

are determined, and then the critical buckling loads of the lled
composite plates are investigated experimentally and numerically.
In the following subsections, the effects of the different ceramic
particle sizes and different ceramic particles (llers) on the elastic
properties and on the critical buckling loads of the composite
plates are presented and discussed.

Fig. 5. An example determination of critical buckling load for Al2O3.

3.1. The effects of ceramic particles on the elastic properties

3. Results and discussion
In this study, rstly, the elastic properties of the ceramic particles lled E-glass/epoxy composite plates, having particle weight

The elastic properties of the composite plates such as elasticity

moduli, in-plane shear modulus and Poissons ratios are determined experimentally for each combination of unlled and lled
E-glass/epoxy composites.

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M. Sayer / Composites: Part B 59 (2014) 1220

3.1.1. The effects of ceramic particle sizes

To investigate the effects of ceramic particle sizes, the variations
of elasticity moduli (E1 and E2) of composites lled 3 lm (3SiC) and
29.2 lm (29SiC) SiC versus 5%, 10% and 15% particle weight fractions are depicted in Fig. 7a and b. As can be seen from the gures,
the values of E1 and E2 increase with an increase in particle weight
fractions beginning from values of the unlled (0%) composites. As
the particle weight fraction reaches to 10%, values of E1 and E2,
reach the maximum value for each composite. After the 10 wt%,
their values decrease gradually. The decrease in the elastic properties at high wt% of ller may be due to the improper bonding
resulting in poor interface adhesion between the ller and resin
[22]. When E1 values of 3SiC and 29SiC composites with 10 wt% ller are compared with ones of the unlled composite, it is seen
from Fig. 7a that these values are higher approximately 18.5% for
3SiC and 9.5% for 29SiC. As for E2, it is seen in Fig. 7b that E2 values
of the composites with 10 wt% ller are high approximately 33%
for 3SiC and 14% for 29SiC as compared to the unlled composite.
It is concluded from the gures that addition of ceramic particles to
composites, until a certain weight ratio, enhances the elasticity
moduli of E-glass/epoxy composites. Especially, the addition of
ceramic particles has a great importance in terms of the reinforcement of resin. So, the value of E2 increases signicantly compared
to value of unlled composite.

Furthermore, it is obtained that the elasticity moduli of the

composite plates with small particle size are higher than that of
the composite plates with bigger particle size. The smaller particle
sizes are benecial to improve the elasticity moduli of the composite plates. That is, it is found that the elasticity moduli of 3SiC composites are higher than those of 29SiC composites.
Fig. 8 shows the variations of in-plane shear modulus and Poissons ratios versus particle weight fractions. In the rst place, the
G12 values for both 3SiC and 29SiC decrease poignantly up to
5 wt% compared to value of the unlled composite, and afterwards
they somewhat increase up to 10 wt% and nally they decrease
again, as seen in Fig. 8a. It is also shown that G12 values of 3SiC
are smaller than those of 29SiC. Fig. 8b shows the relationship between the Poissons ratios and particle weight fractions of composites. It can be seen that the values of m12 for both 3SiC and 29SiC
slightly decrease with increasing the particle weight fractions.
Accordingly, it can be said that there is very little effect of the particle sizes on the variation of Poissons ratios.
3.1.2. The effects of different ceramic llers
In order to reveal the effects of addition of different ceramic llers to the composites, the variations of E1 and E2 of composites
lled 3 lm SiC (3SiC), 4 lm Al2O3 (AO) and 3.5 lm B4C (BC) versus
5%, 10% and 15% particle weight fractions are respectively depicted

10000

37500

9500
9000

E 2 (MPa)

E1 (MPa)

35000

32500

8500
8000
7500

30000

7000
3SiC

29SiC

3SiC

29SiC

6500

27500
0

10

15

10

15

The particle weight fractions (%)

The particle weight fractions (%)

(b)

(a)

Fig. 7. The variations of (a) E1 and (b) E2 of composites versus particle weight fractions for different particle sizes.

3000

0,330
3SiC

29SiC

3SiC

29SiC

2750

2500

12

G12 (MPa)

0,325

0,320

2250
0,315

2000

0,310

1750
0

10

15

10

The particle weight fractions (%)

The particle weight fractions (%)

(a)

(b)

Fig. 8. The variations of (a) G12 and (b) m12 of composites versus particle weight fractions for different particle sizes.

15

18

M. Sayer / Composites: Part B 59 (2014) 1220

in Fig. 9a and b. According to gures, the values of elasticity moduli

rapidly increase with increase in particle weight fractions beginning from values of the unlled composites for all llers. When
the particle weight fraction reaches to 10 wt%, values of elasticity
moduli reach to maximum value for each composite. As the weight
fractions becomes 15 wt%, values of elasticity moduli decrease, but
still their values are bigger than that of the unlled composite. It is
observed that the addition of llers after 10 wt% decreases the
elasticity moduli values of composites.
It is clearly seen from Fig. 9a and b that addition of different
ceramic llers to composites causes a noteworthy increase in elasticity moduli. So, E1 values of composites with 10 wt% ller are
higher, approximately 18.5% for 3SiC, 25% for AO and 39.5% for
BC, than that of the unlled composite (see Fig. 9a). In the same
way, E2 values of composites with 10 wt% ller are higher, approximately 33% for 3SiC, 34% for AO and 35% for BC, than that of the
unlled composite (see Fig. 9b). Test results show that the addition
of 10 wt% boron carbide particles to composites increases signicantly the values of E1 and E2, and they reach to maximum values.
Moreover, in particular, the addition of different ceramic llers has
a great importance in terms of reinforcement of resin.
The variations of shear moduli and Poissons ratios with addition of different ceramic llers to composites versus particle
weight fractions are seen in Fig. 10a and b, respectively. The values
of G12 for 3SiC, AO and BC decrease up to 5 wt% compared to value

of the unlled composite, afterwards they slightly increase up to

10 wt% and in the end they decrease again, as seen in Fig. 10a.
For 3SiC composite, the decrease in the values of G12 is more than
other both composites. As a result of this, their values are smaller
than those of AO and BC composites. As for m12, its values for all
composites softly decrease with an increase in the particle weight
fractions, as shown in Fig. 10b. It appears from the gure that there
is a slight effect of the different ceramic llers on the variation of
Poissons ratios.
3.2. The effects of ceramic particles on the critical buckling loads of
composites
The critical buckling loads of the composite plates are determined experimentally and numerically for each combination of
unlled and lled E-glass/epoxy composites. The elastic properties
(see Table 2) obtained from experiments are used in the numerical
analysis.
3.2.1. The effects of ceramic particle sizes on the critical buckling loads
Fig. 11 shows the variations of critical buckling loads, obtained
from both experiments and numerical analysis, versus the particle
weight fractions. The critical buckling loads of composites increase
gradually until 10 wt%, but, after this ratio they decrease for both
3SiC and 29SiC. The inuence of small particle size on critical

42500
10250
40000

9750
9250
E2 (MPa)

E1 (MPa)

37500
35000

8750
8250

32500
7750
30000

7250
3SiC

AO

3SiC

BC

AO

BC

6750

27500
0

10

15

10

15

The particle weight fractions (%)

The particle weight fractions (%)

(a)

(b)

Fig. 9. The variations of (a) E1 and (b) E2 of composites versus particle weight fractions for different ceramic llers.

0,330

3250
3SiC

AO

BC

3SiC

AO

BC

3000

12

G12 (MPa)

0,325
2750
2500

0,320

2250
0,315
2000
1750

0,310
0

10

15

10

The particle weight fractions (%)

The particle weight fractions (%)

(a)

(b)

Fig. 10. The variations of (a) G12 and (b) m12 of composites versus particle weight fractions for different ceramic llers.

15

M. Sayer / Composites: Part B 59 (2014) 1220

19

load values decrease for all lled composites, but still the buckling
load carrying capabilities of all lled composites are even 15 wt%
bigger than that of the unlled composites. In addition, the experimental results are in harmony with numerical results. As the effects of the three different ceramic llers on the critical buckling
loads examined, BC composite has the best ability to resist buckling, as can be seen from Fig. 12.

10

Pcr (kN)

4. Conclusions

8
3SiC-Exp.

29SiC-Exp.

3SiC-Num.

29SiC-Num.

7
0

10

15

The particle weight fraction(%)

Fig. 11. The variations of experimental and numerical critical buckling loads of
composites versus particle weight fractions for different particle sizes.

buckling load can be clearly seen from the gure. The results show
that the load carrying capability of lled composite plates with
small particle size is higher than that of the bigger particle size, because the increase in elasticity moduli (E1 and E2) of the lled composites having small particle size is higher than the lled
composites having bigger particle size. When the critical buckling
loads of composite plates with two different particle sizes are compared with each other, 3SiC composites have the best ability to resist buckling, as can be seen from Fig. 11. Additionally, for the
results obtained from experimental data and numerical solutions,
when compared with each other, a good agreement is found. The
maximum difference between experimental and numerical results
is almost 2.5%.

3.2.2. The effects of different ceramic llers on the critical buckling

loads
The critical buckling loads, obtained from both experimental
measurements and numerical analysis, versus the particle weight
fractions are presented in Fig. 12. In general, the addition of different ceramic llers to composites results in a positive effect on the
buckling load carrying capability of the composites, as can be seen
from the gure. The critical buckling loads of lled composites increase gradually until 10 wt% and reach the maximum values for
this weight fraction almost 17% for 3SiC, 24.5% for AO and 42%
for BC compared to unlled composite. However, after this ratio

In this study, the different particle sizes and different ceramic

llers effect on the elastic properties and the critical buckling loads
of particle lled composites were investigated, experimentally. In
addition, the critical buckling load of composites was also investigated, numerically. The following conclusions can be derived from
this study:
 It is concluded that the elasticity moduli and load carrying
capability of composites are signicantly inuenced by particle weight fractions, different particle sizes and different
ceramic particles.
 In general, the addition of ceramic particles to composites
increases the elasticity moduli and load carrying capability
of composites. Accordingly, all composites with 10 wt% ller have maximum elasticity moduli values and the best
ability to resist buckling load.
 In general, for all composites with 10 wt% ller, the addition of ceramic particles to resin increases the value of E2
more than the value of E1.
 It is concluded that the elasticity moduli and load carrying
capability of composites plates with small particle size is
higher than that of the composite plates with bigger particle size for all particle weight fractions.
 The addition of different ceramic particles to composites
creates a positive effect on the buckling load carrying capability of the composites. It is concluded that the addition of
10 wt% boron carbide particles to composites increases
almost 42% the critical buckling load value of composite
while the increase is almost 17% for 3SiC, 24.5% for AO
compared to value of unlled composite.
 It is concluded that the critical buckling load values
obtained from experimental data and numerical solutions
are in a good agreement for both different particle sizes
and different ceramic particles.

Acknowledgement
12

This work was supported by Pamukkale University Scientic

Research Council under Project Contract No. 2010BSP021.

11

Pcr (kN)

References
10

3SiC-Exp.

3SiC-Num.

AO-Exp.

AO-Num.

BC-Exp.

BC-Num.

7
0

10

15

The particle weight fractions (%)

Fig. 12. The variations of experimental and numerical critical buckling loads of
composites versus particle weight fractions for different ceramic llers.

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