Ultrasonic welding of thermosetting composites reinforced with glass woven fabric with the presence of nanoparticles

Preparing composites before welding and using nanocomposites is one of the new methods of joining. In this research, the mechanical strength of thermosetting composites surface prepared by chemical etching using polyvinyl chloride (PVC) polymer in the presence of aluminum oxide nanoparticles has been investigated. Thermal analysis of PVC containing different weight percentages of aluminum oxide nanoparticles shows a 45% increase in thermal conductivity. A regression model based on the response surface methodology using the effective parameters of welding time, weight percentage of nanoparticles and thermal conductivity obtained from variance analysis was developed to predict the maximum force and displacement of joint failure. The results show the maximum breaking strength and strain of 59 MPa and 0.04 of the welded sample, respectively, in the presence of 1% by weight of aluminum oxide nanoparticles. The increase of 1.3 and 1.2 times of the maximum tensile strength and breaking strain of the joint, respectively, in comparison with pure PVC samples, indicates the improvement of mechanical properties. Examining the microstructure with SEM shows that a uniform connection has been established along the weld line.