Statistical effects of using ceramic particles in glass fibre reinforced composites

• Micro-ceramic particles were added into glass fibre composites.
• The effect of the location, weight fraction and type of particles was investigated by DoE.
• The highest mechanical performance was achieved by adding 10 wt% of silica in the upper side of the sample.
• The FEA was able to better assess the effect of particle location under flexural loading.

The paper describes the influence provided by micro-ceramic particles on the flexural behaviour of glass-fibre composites. A full factorial design on 128 composites samples has been performed to identify the effect of the location, weight fraction and type of particles over the bulk density, flexural strength and modulus of glass fibre composites. A microstructural analysis was performed to evaluate the crack propagation mechanism of reinforced laminate composites under three bending testing. An arbitrary-Lagrangian–Eulerian based finite element analysis was used to assess the effect of ceramic particle location on the flexural properties. The study identifies the use of 10 wt% of silica microparticles in the upper side of the sample as the best micromechanical configuration to obtain the highest mechanical performance in the composites.