Mechanical characterization of an innovative composite material with basalt fibers

The topic of this thesis is the mechanical characterization of an innovative composite material with basalt fibers. The final aim is to determine the suitability of these composites for structural design. Two types of composites have been analyzed: basalt-vinylester and basalt-epoxy composites. The mechanical characterization consists of two main parts. A first one regards the static characterization of the two composites. It includes a series of tensile, compression and interlaminar tests. The second part, instead, refers to a dynamic characterization of the two composites. It consists of a series of fatigue tests. In parallel with these mechanical tests, another technique of analysis based on thermography has been applied. This technique applied with a particular method, to static and dynamic tests, allows to quickly estimate the fatigue life of the specimens. From this research emerges that the basalt-epoxy composite shows a better mechanical behavior from the static characterization standpoints as well as dynamic. The results obtained by thermographic analysis are preliminary but result, however, in agreement with fatigue tests. Therefore the thermographic method seems promising and useful.