A Comprehensive Assessment of the Effects of <scp>SiC</scp> Particles on the Physical and Mechanical Attributes of Basalt Fiber Polymer Sandwich Composites

ABSTRACT Lightweight materials with advanced properties are of prominent interest in the automobile and aerospace manufacturing sectors. Responding to the industrial needs, the different varieties of polymer composites have been developed and put into practice. This research focuses on the development of resin‐impregnated basalt fiber woven sandwich composite reinforced with SiC‐enriched core. The usual open molding was followed to fabricate the test coupons by following the SiC inclusions of 0, 3, 6, and 9 wt%. The microscopic study reveals not only the uniform dispersion of SiC particles within the core for 6 wt% but also noticeable porosity for 9 wt%. The density analysis manifests the increased density with the increased SiC content along with a meager porosity. The tensile, flexural, shear, and hardness evaluation results explore the 80.6%, 86.4%, 92.27%, and 29.48% increment for 6 wt% of SiC inclusion, that of the neat epoxy core, respectively. It is observed that the pores induced due to agglomeration of higher inclusion (9%) of particles dent the properties. Further, the fracture morphology of tensile, flexural and shear fracture ensures the particle strengthening by crack deflection and extended plastic deformation.