International Research Journal of Engineering and Technology (IRJET) e-ISSN: 2395-0056 Volume: 04 Issue: 11 | Nov -2017 www.irjet.net p-ISSN: 2395-0072 © 2017, IRJET | Impact Factor value: 6.171 | ISO 9001:2008 Certified Journal | Page 7 A STUDY ON EFFECT OF CARBON AND ASH FILLERS ON FLEXURAL PROPERTIES IN GFRP COMPOSITES Mr. C HEMANATH 1 , Mr. D.HARSHA VARDHAN 2 1 P.G. Scholar, Sri Venkateswara Institute of Technology, Anantapuram, AP 2 HOD, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sri Venkateswara Institute of Technology, Anantapuram, AP ---------------------------------------------------------------------***--------------------------------------------------------------------- Abstract - Recent years in manufacturing industry composite materials applications are extensively growing because of their versatile properties. An attempt have been made in this research work to study on effect of fillers on the mechanical behavior of glass fibre reinforced epoxy composites. Here the composites were fabricated using simple hand lay-up technique. Carbon and ash fillers are mixed with the composite material and then flexural properties of specimens subjected to both with filler and without filler combinations were evaluated and compared alongside. It has been observed that there is a significant effect of cement filler on the flexural strength of glass fibre reinforced epoxy based composites. Key Words: fillers, Glass fibre, Flexural strength, GFRP. 1. INTRODUCTION Composite material are made up of two or more different materials with different physical and chemical properties from the individual materials. These materials are used in ancient Egypt, people used to build walls from the bricks made of mud with straw as reinforcing component. Hybrid composites are commonly termed as the mixture of two or more reinforcing fibres in a single matrix system. Through proper fibre selection and design, the performance of hybrid composites could be achieved through hybridization. Epoxy resins are widely used for matrix composites due to their excellent adhesive, dielectric, and mechanical properties and alone provide most of the properties required for composites. The fibrous composites, especially glass fiber–reinforced epoxy composites in which glass fiber is the primary load carrying element, are being increasingly used in military and aerospace applications owing to several desirable properties including high specific strength, high specific stiffness, and controlled anisotropy. The mechanical properties of composites are most important, because they can be influenced by parameters such as type of filler, type of matrix, alignment of fibers, type of fibers, aspect ratio of fibers, the fiber matrix interphase properties or adhesion between fiber and resin matrix. When two or more materials with different properties are combined together, they form a composite materials. In general, the properties of composite materials are superior in many respects, to those of the individual constituents. This has provided the main motivation for the research and development of composite materials. Shyamkumar Shah [7] studied the effect of filler material (coal ash) on mechanical properties of E-Glass fibre reinforced polymer has been studied out by varying filler materials. For these study three different types of specimens were prepared, viz FRP without filler material, the FRP with 10% volume percentages of coal ash and the FRP with 5% volume percentage of Fly ash as filler material. The polyester composites were fabricated by hand layup method. Mechanical properties of the specimens are analyzed using computerized Universal Testing Machine as per ASTM D 638 standards and compared to those of the FRP without filler material. Mechanical properties such as ultimate tensile strength, percentage of elongation, yield strength, Poisson’s ratio and percentage reduction in area were found out. Raffi Mohammed [10] investigated on the mechanical properties of E-glass Reinforced epoxy based composites without and with filler materials (Bagasse fiber (B.F) / Bagasse Ash (B.A) / Coal powder (C.P) /Coal Fly Ash (C.F.A)) which acts as epoxy modifiers. Composites filled with 10 wt.% concentration of Bagasse Fiber, Bagasse Ash, Coal Powder and Fly Ash from Coal, were fabricated by hand lay-up technique. The fabricated composites are cut in to specimens according to the ASTM standards and the mechanical properties like Tensile strength, Flexural strength, Impact strength, Inter laminar shear strength (ILSS) and tensile modules of the specimens were determined. The Test Results shows that composite filled by 10 wt. % Bagasse Ash exhibited maximum Tensile strength, flexural strength and Inter laminar shear strength when compared with the other filler composites. The composite filled by 10 wt % coal powder exhibited maximum impact strength and composites filled by 10 wt. % Coal Fly Ash exhibited maximum tensile modulus. 2. MATERIALS AND METHODS Current work is on composite made up of woven glass fibre reinforcement and epoxy as matrix material. The