Haider Imran, Gul Iftikhar Hussain, Faraz Muhammad Iftikhar, Aziz Shahid, Jaffery Syed Husain Imran, Khan Muhammad Ali, Jung Dong-Won
Thermal Transport Laboratory, Department of Materials Engineering, School of Chemical & Materials Engineering (SCME), National University of Sciences & Technology (NUST), Islamabad 44000, Pakistan.
Department of Mechanical Engineering, College of Engineering, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa 31982, Saudi Arabia.
Polymers (Basel). 2023 Oct 18;15(20):4133. doi: 10.3390/polym15204133.
Polymer matrix wave transparent composites are used in a variety of high-speed communication applications. One of the applications of these involves making protective enclosures for antennas of microwave towers, air vehicles, weather radars, and underwater communication devices. Material performance, structural, thermal, and mechanical degradation are matters of concern as advanced wireless communication needs robust materials for radomes that can withstand mechanical and thermal stresses. These polymer composite radomes are installed externally on antennas and are exposed directly to ambient as well as severe conditions. In this research, epoxy resin was reinforced with a small amount of quartz fibers to yield an improved composite radome material compared to a pure epoxy composite with better thermal and mechanical properties. FTIR spectra, SEM morphology, dielectric constant (Ɛ) and dielectric loss (δ), thermal degradation (weight loss), and mechanical properties were determined. Compared to pure epoxy, the lowest values of Ɛ and δ were 3.26 and 0.021 with 30 wt.% quartz fibers in the composite, while 40% less weight loss was observed which shows its better thermal stability. The mechanical characteristics encompassing tensile and bending strength were improved by 42.8% and 48.3%. In high-speed communication applications, compared to a pure epoxy composite, adding only a small quantity of quartz fiber can improve the composite material's dielectric performance, durability, and thermal and mechanical strength.
聚合物基体波透明复合材料被用于各种高速通信应用中。这些应用之一涉及为微波塔、飞行器、气象雷达和水下通信设备的天线制作保护罩。由于先进的无线通信需要坚固的材料来制造能够承受机械和热应力的天线罩，材料性能、结构、热和机械降解是令人关注的问题。这些聚合物复合天线罩安装在天线外部，直接暴露于环境以及恶劣条件下。在本研究中，用少量石英纤维增强环氧树脂，以得到一种改进的复合天线罩材料，与纯环氧复合材料相比，其具有更好的热性能和机械性能。测定了傅里叶变换红外光谱（FTIR）、扫描电子显微镜（SEM）形态、介电常数（Ɛ）和介电损耗（δ）、热降解（失重）以及机械性能。与纯环氧树脂相比，复合材料中含有30 wt.%石英纤维时，Ɛ和δ的最低值分别为3.26和0.021，同时观察到失重减少了40%，这表明其具有更好的热稳定性。包括拉伸强度和弯曲强度在内的机械特性提高了42.8%和48.3%。在高速通信应用中，与纯环氧复合材料相比，仅添加少量石英纤维就能提高复合材料的介电性能、耐久性以及热和机械强度。
