Experimental Study of the Effect of Zinc Borate on Flame Retardancy of Carbon-Kevlar Hybrid Fibers Reinforced Composite Materials

Abstract

This study aims to investigate possibility to increase the flame retardancy for composite materials by addition of a flame retardant material which represent the zinc borate as a coating layer of (4mm) thickness on the surface of composite material consist of araldite resin reinforced by hybrid fibers from carbon and kevlar fibers as a consecutive layers which be as a woven roving (º 90 - º 0). Then, this system (flame retardant material and composite material) was exposed to a direct flame which generated from oxyacetylene flame (up to 3000ºC) and gas flame (2000ºC) under different exposure distances (10,15, and 20mm), and study the range of resistance of flame retardant material layer to the flames and protected the substrate where we used the method of measuring the surface temperature opposite to the flame where we obtained the better results with large exposed distance and large percentage from protective layer which is zinc borate (30%) for both types of flames, as well as the flame resistance will be increased with decrease the flame temperature.

Keywords: Hybrid Composite Material,, Flame Retardant Material, Zinc Borate.