Abstract
Due their various applications the fabric reinforced polymer composites are subject of a large number of researches especially for aero- and automotive industry. Regarding the last domain there are huge interests in designing and forming composites with controllable strengthens for car bodies able to protect both the driver and passengers inside and pedestrians in case of unfortunate events. In this regard, based on previous studies developed at the Research and Development Centre for Thermoset Matrix Composites, our proposal is to design the bending behaviour of a fabric reinforced materials by means of changing the bending strength of the polymer matrix using a solvent. 1-Methyl, 2- pyrrolidinone is a well-known polymer solvent that had been used in previous studies as vector to transfer various organic agents into epoxy resins. During those studies it had been noticed that the presence of above mentioned solvent is changing the bending behaviour of polymer samples and induces some properties that are belonging to memory-shape materials. The present study is related to mechanical analysis of a multi-layered material (fabric layers) immersed into an epoxy resin having a graded bending strength.
Keywords: modified epoxy resin; fabrics; bending behaviour; tensile modulus