Development and characterization of polymer composite material for aircraft using waste foundry sand morphology

In this thesis, the effects of quartz and waste casting sand addition on the mechanical properties of glass fiber/epoxy composites were investigated. The results show that samples with waste casting sand additives generally have higher density and hardness values. Especially, 63-100 µm quartz addition increased the average hardness value to the highest extent. The lower densities of smaller powdered quartz and waste casting sand samples indicate that small particle sizes can increase the agglomeration effects and create voids. Quartz and Waste Casting Sand additives also provided significant increases in bending stress and Young's modulus; especially 63-100 µm waste casting sand samples provided the highest stiffness and strength. Quartz, on the other hand, provided similar hardness increases, but did not show as high stiffness as waste casting sand. In general, it was observed that waste casting sand additive provided greater improvements in mechanical properties. The findings of the thesis reveal that waste foundry sand is more effective than quartz in improving material performance and plays an important role in developing optimized composite materials.