ASSESSMENT OF THE APPLICABILITY OF BASALT FIBER-REINFORCED EPOXY COMPOSITES IN VEHICLE CONSTRUCTION

This article presents a description of the properties of basalt fibers and polymer composites containing basalt fibers. Basalt fibers are seen as a potentially beneficial component in composite development, especially for vehicles in transport applications. The article also presents the results of the mechanical properties investigation of the glass-epoxy and basalt-epoxy composites. The composites for testing were prepared using the popular hand lay-up method. The samples were cut from prepared plates using abrasive water jet methods. The obtained samples were tested to evaluate their flexural strength and interlaminar sharing strength. The achieved mechanical properties were compared.