Mechanical Properties of Hollow Glass Bead-filled ABS Composites

In this article, three types of hollow glass beads (HGB1, HGB2, and HGB3) with different sizes and distribution are used as fillers. HGB1 has a small mean particle diameter and wide distribution, HGB2 has a large diameter and medium distribution, and HGB3 has a medium diameter and narrow distribution. The tensile, notched Charpy impact and flexural properties of HGB-filled acrylnitrile-butadiene-styrene copolymer (ABS) composites are measured at room temperature. It has been found that the Young’s modulus increases linearly with increasing volume fraction φ f of the fillers. The tensile yield stress and tensile stress at break decrease gently with the increase of φ f . For ABS/HGB2 system, the tensile fracture strength energy (E tb ) is obviously lower than that of the unfilled ABS. For ABS/HGB1 system, the E tb values are somewhat lower than that of the unfilled ABS. While for ABS/HGB3 system, the E tb values are slightly higher than that of the unfilled ABS. The notched Charpy impact strength decreases quickly at φ f ≤ 5%, and then decreases gently with increasing (φ f ). On the other hand, the flexural strength increases at φ f ≤ 5%, and then it decreases with increasing φ f . In general, the effects of filler size and its distribution on these mechanical properties are not significant.