ORIGINAL RESEARCH
https://doi.org/10.37819/nanofab.009.1829 Nanofabrication (2024) 9 | 1
Effect of MWCNTs on static, dynamic, and wear
performance of Vacuum Assisted Resin Infusion
Molding (VARIM) processed glass fabric/epoxy
polymer composites
Dikshant Malhotraa, Mayank Agrawalb, RT Durai Prabhakaranc
Abstract: In the present work, MWCNTs were used in wt.%
of 0.075, 0.15, and 0.3 in epoxy resin, and then glass fabric/
epoxy polymer (GF/EP) composites were fabricated using VARIM
setup. The mechanical and wear properties of GF/EP compos-
ites were compared with and without the addition of MWCNTs.
Maximum improvement in tensile and exural performance were
seen in GF/EP composites at 0.15 weight percent MWCNT ad-
dition when compared to a neat GF/EP one, based on static
testing such as tensile and exural tests. High-cycle fatigue
test results show a relatively higher cycle count with 0.15 wt.%
MWCNTs addition in the GF/EP composite compared to the GF/
EP without the addition of MWCNTs. The wear performance
also improved with a lower friction coefcient as well as a lower
track depth and width for MWCNTs with added GF/EP than plain
GF/EP composite. Therefore, in addition to decreasing surface
softening and improving the wear performance of glass fabric
epoxy composites, MWCNTs (0.15 weight percent) increased
the interfacial adhesion at the ber/matrix interface. This study
establishes an optimum ratio of 0.15 wt.% of MWCNTs addition
in glass fabric/epoxy polymer composites for enhancement in
their mechanical and wear performance.
Keywords: Glass fabric; Epoxy, Multiwalled carbon nanotubes
(MWCNTs); Tensile; fatigue; wear.
1. INTRODUCTION
Glass fabric-epoxy (GF/EP) composites have wide applications in
aerospace, wind turbine blades, and other industrial products due to
their excellent mechanical performance and lower weight (Shivamur-
thy et al., 2020; Ding et al., 2018; Chen et al., 2014). Despite this,
failures of GF/EP composites are reported in harsh environments (To-
masz et al., 2012; Huang et al., 2023; Bai et al., 2014). Poor tribolog-
ical performance of GF/EP composites is another major concern that
limits their applications (Barrena et al., 2014; Upadhyay et al., 2019).
The mechanical and wear performance of GF/EP composites can be
improved by the addition of carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs). MWCNTs
exhibit excellent mechanical properties, such as higher tensile and
bending strengths, as well as improved anti-friction and anti-wear
properties (Rathore et al., 2016). Some of the previous works report-
ed the addition of MWCNTs to glass-ber epoxy composites. The
interfacial shear strength of glass ber/epoxy composites modied
Article history:
Received: 24-01-2024
Revised: 19-02-2024
Accepted: 22-04-2024
Published: 28-07-2024
a Composite Materials and
Mechanics Laboratory, Indian
Institute of Technology Jammu,
Jagti, Jammu and Kashmir,
India-181221.
Corresponding author:
dikshant.malhotra@iitjammu.ac.in
b Composite Materials and
Mechanics Laboratory, Indian
Institute of Technology Jammu,
Jagti, Jammu and Kashmir,
India-181221.
c Composite Materials and
Mechanics Laboratory, Indian
Institute of Technology Jammu,
Jagti, Jammu and Kashmir,
India-181221.
© The Author(s), 2024
ORIGINAL RESEARCH Dikshant Malhotra et al.
2 | Nanofabrication (2024) 9 https://doi.org/10.37819/nanofab.008.1839
with carbon nanotubes were investigated (Godara
et al., 2010). The mechanical properties of glass
ber/carbon nanotubes/epoxy hybrid composites
were studied. Out of different weight percentages
of MWCNTs, such as 0.1, 0.5, and 1 wt.% epoxy
composites, the highest improvement in mechani-
cal properties such as tensile strength, Youngs mod-
ulus, and toughness were observed with 0.5 wt.%
MWCNTs (Dehrooyeh et al., 2021). The effect of
MoO3/carbon nanotubes on the friction and wear
characteristics of glass fabric epoxy composites
under dry sliding conditions was studied (Yuxin
et al., 2020). The results depicted improved wear
performance of MoO3-CNT hybrid material/GF/EP
polymer by around four times compared to GF/EP
composites. The exural behavior of glass/epoxy
and MWCNT/glass/epoxy (0.3 wt.% of MWCNT)
at different in-service environment temperatures
were assessed (Prusthy et al., 2015). The open-hole
tensile strength of unidirectional glass ber-re-
inforced plastic (UD-GFRP) laminates relative to
MW-CNT-infused UD-GFRP composites (Pothnis
et al., 2021). The presence of MW-CNTs increased
the tensile strength by approximately 27% com-
pared to neat UD-GFRP. Several other works re-
ported improvement in the properties of composites
such as silicon rubber nanocomposites with the ad-
dition of nanoparticles (Kumar et al., 2021; Verma
et al., 2018; Park et al., 2022).
Previous works reported the effects of
MWCNTs addition on the mechanical properties of
glass ber epoxy polymer composites and the wear
performance of carbon nanotube coatings on glass
fabric epoxy composites. No work has been report-
ed on the effect of MWCNTs addition on the static
(tensile, exural), dynamic (high cycle fatigue), and
wear performance of glass fabric-reinforced epoxy
polymer composites and to evaluate an optimum
ratio of MWCNTs addition in these composites for
enhancement of the aforementioned properties. The
study would be useful to researchers to estimate the
optimum ratio of MWCNT addition in GF/EP com-
posites for an improvement in their mechanical and
wear performance.
2. MATERIAL AND METHODS
2.1. Materials
Multi-walled carbon nanotube/glass fabric/epoxy
composite laminates and plain glass fabric/epoxy
composite laminates were prepared using glass
fabric (Type: uni-directional plain-woven, thick-
ness: 0.33-0.41 mm, obtained from Bhor Chem-
icals & Plastics Pvt. Ltd., India) as the structural
reinforcement. A mixture of epoxy resin (Epotec
YD-585) and hardener (TH7257E) supplied by
Aditya Birla Chemicals Pvt. Ltd. was used as the
matrix. The MWCNTs (diameter: 10-20 nm, length:
3-8 μm, purity: >99%, average interlayer distance:
0.34 μm) supplied by Nanoshel, US, were used as
the nano reinforcement.
2.2. Composites Fabrication
The MWCNTs/epoxy resin/glass fabric compos-
ites were fabricated in three stages. The MWCNTs
were mixed with epoxy resin in two stages. An
accurately weighed MWCNTs were mixed with
epoxy resin by high-shear mixing using a shear
homogenizer (Make: Daihan, Model: HG-15A).
at 20000 rpm for 10 minutes, followed by soni-
cation at 20 KHz on pulse mode (2s on, 5s off)
for 20 minutes using a probe sonicator (Make:
Stericox, Model: DH-92-IIDN). Further, hardener
was mixed in epoxy resin (mixing ratio 100:32),
followed by degassing under vacuum to remove
the air bubbles. After degassing, glass fabric/ep-
oxy (GF/EP) and glass fabric/epoxy/MWCNTs
(GF/EP/MWCNTs) laminates were fabricated us-
ing the vacuum-assisted resin infusion molding
(VARIM) process. A stack of 8 layers of unidirec-
tional glass fabric was laid on the mold and then
sealed with vacuum bagging lm, as shown in
Fig. 1(a). The vacuum was then applied to infuse
the epoxy resin mixture into the glass fabric laid
up via spiral tubing. The VARIM process is com-
prised of mainly two stages. The rst stage is infu-
sion, where an epoxy hardener mixture is sucked
under a vacuum into the glass fabric layers, where
vacuum pressure is maintained within the range of
650 mm of Hg to 670 mm of Hg using a vacuum
pump. The laminates were then cured at 80˚C for
5 hours. The GF/EP and GF/EP/MWCNTs lami-
nates prepared by the VARIM process have a size
of 300 mm x 300 mm and a thickness in the range
of 2.42 mm to 2.65 mm. Three batches of matri-
ces comprised of MWCNT with weights of 0.075,
0.15, and 0.3 were prepared for GF/EP/MWCNTs
composites. Samples were designated as GF/EP
for neat glass fabric epoxy composite and GF/
EP+0.075MWCNTs, GF/EP+0.15MWCNTs, and
GF/EP+0.3MWCNTs for wt.% of 0.075, 0.15, and
0.3 MWCNTs in epoxy resin.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH Effect of MWCNTs on static, dynamic…
https://doi.org/10.37819/nanofab.009.1839 Nanofabrication (2024), 9 | 3
2.3. Composites characterization
The in-plane tensile properties like ultimate tensile
strength, Young’s modulus, and percentage elon-
gation at break for GF/EP and GF/EP/MWCNTs
composites were as per the ASTM D3039 stan-
dard. The exural properties of these composite
laminates were evaluated under the ASTM D7264
standard. The sample dimensions for tensile and
exural tests were as per ASTM D3039 and ASTM
D7264 standards, respectively, and tests were per-
formed using a universal testing machine (Make:
Walter + Bai; Model: LFV-100 kN). At least, three
samples were tested for each batch to ascertain the
repeatability of the performance of these compos-
ites. Field emission scanning electron microscopy
(FE-SEM) (Make: JEOL, Model: JSM 7900F) was
used for fractography analysis of the fractured sam-
ples obtained after the tensile test and micrograph
analysis of polished GF/EP and GF/EP/MWCNTs
composites after VARIM fabrication. Gold sputter-
ing was done on composite sample surfaces to get
good SEM images of fractured samples. High-cy-
cle fatigue (HCF) tests were performed at different
stress levels for GF/EP and GF/EP/MWCNTs com-
posites under stress-controlled constant-amplitude
axial fatigue loading conditions following ASTM
standard D3479. The load ratio was 0.1, and stress
(MPa) vs. number of cycles to failure (nf) (S-N)
curves were plotted for GF/EP composites with
and without MWCNTs. The fatigue run-out condi-
tion was 1000000 cycles for both with and with-
out MWCNTs added to GF/EP composites. Fric-
tion and wear tests for GF/EP and different weight
percentages of GF/EP/MWCNTs composites were
performed using a ball-on-disc tribometer (Make:
Ducom Instruments) under dry sliding conditions
at room temperature (25 ± 1 ˚C) as per ASTM stan-
dard G133. Disc-shaped composite samples were
rotated against a stainless-steel ball (AISI 316) of
6 mm diameter with a normal load varying from
10 N to 30 N in steps of 10 N and a sliding speed of
0.1 m/s for a test duration of 60 min (3600 seconds).
Similar test parameters were used in previous work
on tribological studies on epoxy-carbon nanober
composites (Chanda et al., 2019). Before testing, all
samples were polished to 1200 grit and cleaned with
acetone to remove surface impurities. Friction force
was measured with a load cell in the ball holder,
and weight loss measurements were also done using
an electronic balance. Worn surfaces of steel ball
and composite samples were further investigated
under optical microscopy (Make: Olympus, Model:
DSX510) and FESEM analysis to depict the possi-
ble wear mechanisms.
3. RESULTS
3.1. Mechanical performance
of GF/EP and GF/EP/CNT composites
The mechanical performance of GF/EP/MWCNTs
composites with different weights of MWCNTs
and neat GF/EP composites was evaluated via
static tests, which included tensile and exural
tests besides high-cycle fatigue tests. The aver-
age values of important properties such as tensile
strength, Youngs modulus, elongation at break (%)
for the tensile test, exural stress, exural strain,
and exural modulus for the exural test are listed
in Table 1. With the addition of MWCNTs in the
GF/EP composite, an increase in tensile strength
was noticed. MWCNTs with weight percentages
of 0.075, 0.15, and 0.3 exhibited improvements in
tensile strength of approximately 37.69%, 40.54%,
and 31.47%, respectively, compared to GF/EP
composites without MWCNTs (Fig. 1b). A similar
trend was observed in the exural test, where max-
imum improvement in exural stress was noted for
GF/EP+0.15MWCNTs by around 55% compared
to GF/EP (Fig. 2a). Youngs modulus and exural
modulus also increased slightly with the addition
of MWCNTs in the GF/EP composite. The fractog-
raphy results, as shown in (Figs. 1c-f), showed the
fractured sample morphology of GF/EP compos-
ites with and without MWCNTs addition after the
tensile test. For the GF/EP composite, glass bers
were detached, whereas glass ber detachment was
not evident for MWCNTs added to the GF/EP com-
posite. Another important observation was the rise
in elongation at break (%) in the tensile test and
exural strain with the addition of MWCNTs. The
highest increase in elongation at break and exur-
al strain was observed with 0.15 wt.% MWCNTs
relative to a neat GF/EP composite. Also, the least
rise in tensile strength, exural stress, elonga-
tion at break, and exural strain among different
wt.% MWCNTs-added composites were noted for
the GF/EP/MWCNTs composite with 0.3 wt.%
MWCNTs. The tensile and exural properties of
the GF/EP/MWCNTs composite with 0.075 wt.%
MWCNTs were increased to a certain extent at
0.15 wt.% MWCNTs and then decreased consider-
ably at 0.3 wt.% MWCNTs relative to the GF/EP
ORIGINAL RESEARCH Dikshant Malhotra et al.
4 | Nanofabrication (2024) 9 https://doi.org/10.37819/nanofab.008.1839
composite without MWCNTs. HCF tests were con-
ducted on GF/EP and GF/EP+0.15MWCNTs at the
same stress levels, and S-N curves were graphical-
ly represented with an exponential t as shown in
Figs 2b,c. Maximum tensile and exural strengths
were observed with 0.15 wt.% MWCNTs, GF/
EP+0.15MWCNTs was chosen for HCF compar-
ison with the GF/EP composite. The MWCNTs
added to the GF/EP composite possessed a high-
er cycle count at different stress levels relative
to the GF/EP composite. Both with and without
MWCNTs added, GF/EP composites withstand
the fatigue runout condition at lower stress levels.
SEM micrographs (Figs. 3a,b) for GF/EP and GF/
EP+0.15MWCNTs composites showed enhanced
interfacial adhesion for GF/EP composites with
MWCNTs addition which restricted interfacial de-
fects and debonding at ber/matrix interface (Figs.
3a,b). Similar observations were reported on inter-
face enhancement of glass ber fabric/epoxy com-
posites by modifying bers with functionalized
MWCNTs (Zeng et al., 2019).
S.
No. Type of composite
Tensile
Strength
(MPa)
Youngs
Modulus
(GPa)
Elongation
at break
(%)
Flexural
stress
(MPa)
Flexural
strain
Flexural
Modulus
(GPa)
1GF/EP 754 ± 10 40 ± 2 2.63 535 ± 6 0.0231 24.88 ± 1
2GF/EP+0.075MWCNTs 1045 ± 6 44 ± 1 3.84 791 ± 3 0.0312 27.21 ± 1
3GF/EP+0.15MWCNTs 1082 ± 3 43 ± 1 3.87 831 ± 4 0.0317 27.93 ± 2
4GF/EP+0.3MWCNTs 969 ± 8 45 ± 2 3 .73 735 ± 8 0.0253 26.81 ± 1
Table 1. Average values for tensile and exural test parameters
for GF/EP and GF/EP/MWCNTs composites.
3.2. Wear performance of GF/EP
and GF/EP/MWCNTs composites
The friction tests were conducted, and friction co-
efcient versus time duration graphs were plotted
at different loading conditions of 10N, 20N, and
30N for GF/EP and GF/EP+0.15MWCNTs com-
posites, as shown in Figs.4(a-c). The friction coef-
cient for composites reached a stable level after a
certain time, as shown in the gures. The friction
coefcient increased with the rise in loading for
composites. At 10N load, no signicant difference
in stable friction coefcient was noted between GF/
EP and GF/EP+0.15MWCNTs composites. Howev-
er, at 20N and 30N loads, considerable variations
were observed between composites, as the GF/
EP+0.15MWCNTs composite possessed a substan-
tially lower friction coefcient relative to the GF/
EP one. The wear track generated after the ball-
on-disc test on these composites Fig. 5(a-d) show
ball morphology after wear testing for composites
at 10N load, and Figs. 6(a-d) show the same at 30N
loading conditions for GF/EP composites with and
without CNTs. The wear track depth in 2D and 3D
views for composites is shown in Figs 5(b-f) at 10N
load and in Figs 6(b,c,e, f) at 30N load. At 10N load,
track width was lower for GF/EP+0.15MWCNTs
than GF/EP, and not much signicant change in
ball morphology was observed. The wear track
depth was 33 µm for GF/EP+0.15MWCNTs and 89
µm for GF/EP. A similar trend was noted related
to wear track depth at 30N load, where 154 µm for
GF/EP and 127 µm for GF/EP+0.15MWCNTs. The
particles of the GF/EP composite were evident in
their larger content on the ball surface compared to
the GF/EP+0.15MWCNTs one. So, MWCNTs-add-
ed GF/EP composites have improved wear per-
formance relative to GF/EP composites. SEM mi-
crographs (Figs. 7a-b) taken at wear track at 30N
load for both GF/EP and GF/EP+0.15MWCNTs
composites showed considerable variations in wear
track mechanisms. In both composites, cracks were
evident in the epoxy layer which showed there was
softening at the surface due to frictional heating.
For GF/EP composite, epoxy layer was broken be-
sides debonding of the epoxy with glass bers was
evident whereas no such characteristic was noticed
for GF/EP+0.15MWCNTs composite.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH Effect of MWCNTs on static, dynamic…
https://doi.org/10.37819/nanofab.009.1839 Nanofabrication (2024), 9 | 5
Figure 1. (a) VARIM setup; (b) Tensile stress vs. strain graphs; (c) to (f) Fractographs
of fractured samples after tensile test (c) GF/EP; (d) GF/EP+0.075MWCNTs;
(e) GF/EP+0.15MWCNTs; (f) GF/EP+0.3MWCNTs.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH Dikshant Malhotra et al.
6 | Nanofabrication (2024) 9 https://doi.org/10.37819/nanofab.008.1839
Figure 2. (a) Deection at center of beam (mm) vs. load (kN) plots for three-point bend samples;
(b) S-N curve for GF/EP composite; (c) S-N curve for GF/EP+0.15MWCNTs.
Figure 3. SEM micrographs for ber/matrix interface of (a) GF/EP composite;
(b) GF/EP+0.15MWCNTs composite.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH Effect of MWCNTs on static, dynamic…
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Figure 4. Friction coefcient vs. Time duration (s) plots at different loading conditions
for GF/EP and GF/EP+0.15MWCNTs composites: (a) 10N; (b) 20N; (c) 30N.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH Dikshant Malhotra et al.
8 | Nanofabrication (2024) 9 https://doi.org/10.37819/nanofab.008.1839
Figure 5. Wear track results for GF/EP and GF/EP+0.15CNT at 10N load:
(a) & (d) Ball morphology; (b) & (e) 2D view of wear tracks; (c) & (f) 3D view of wear tracks.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH Effect of MWCNTs on static, dynamic…
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Figure 6. Wear track results for GF/EP and GF/EP+0.15CNT at 30N load:
(a) & (d) Ball morphology; (b) & (e) 2D view of wear tracks; (c) & (f) 3D view of wear tracks.
Figure. 7. SEM micrographs taken at the wear track of (a) GF/EP composite;
(b) GF/EP+0.15MWCNTs composite at 30N Load.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH Dikshant Malhotra et al.
10 | Nanofabrication (2024) 9 https://doi.org/10.37819/nanofab.008.1839
4. DISCUSSION
The improvement in tensile and exural proper-
ties of MWCNTs with added GF/EP composites
was attributed to enhanced interfacial interac-
tions, which further resulted in effective load
transfer from matrix to CNT and CNT to fabric.
Previous work showed that MWCNTs proved to
be benecial in enhancing the tensile and exur-
al strengths of MWCNTs added to glass ber-re-
inforced polymers (GFRP) (Kappan et al., 2019).
As CNTs are high-strain energy-induced materials,
uniform CNT dispersion in epoxy resin improves
rigidity and hardness through interfacial interac-
tion. The addition of MWCNTs to GFRP results
in increased interfacial adhesion, which leads to
the enhancement of both exural and interlaminar
shear strengths (Singh et al., 2019). Fractography
results showed relatively lower glass ber detach-
ment for GF/EP/MWCNTs composites compared
to GF/EP composites. The homogenized dispersion
of MWCNTs creates more ller surfaces for bond-
ing with the epoxy, which enhances the mechani-
cal properties (Weiking et al., 2014). The optimum
wt.% of 0.15 wt.% MWCNTs were identied as
weight% with maximum mechanical properties
among different MWCNTs weight% added GF/EP
composites. There was a decline in the mechani-
cal properties beyond 0.15 wt.%, which was evi-
dent for the GF/EP+0.3MWCNTs composite. An
increase in MWCNTs content beyond 0.1 wt.% in
epoxy results in agglomeration due to MWCNTs
large specic surface area, and these aggregated
llers act as stress concentrators that are detrimen-
tal for mechanical performance (Cui et al., 2013).
Higher percentages of CNT addition in GFRP tend
to degrade the fatigue performance of GFRP due
to the formation of agglomerates (Burrego et al.,
2014). The increase in high cycle fatigue of GF/
EP+0.15CNT relative to GF/EP was attributed to
the formation of nanoscale damage zones owing to
carbon nanotubes. Lower MWCNT volume fraction
addition to the matrix tends to increase signicant-
ly high cycle fatigue performance owing to energy
absorption from the fracture of nanotubes bridging
across nanoscale cracks and from nanotube pull-
out from the matrix that results in an improvement
in fatigue life (Grimmer et al., 2009). Wear per-
formance improvement due to MWCNTs addition
in GF/EP composite was attributed to MWCNTs
self-lubrication characteristic. CNTs as additives
can effectively reduce the friction coefcient of
materials and improve their anti-friction and an-
ti-wear properties (Yuxin et al., 2020). Combining
epoxy resin with MWCNTs is an effective method
to enhance wear resistance and lower its friction
coefcient (Cui et al., 2013).
5. CONCLUSION
The major challenges faced during MWCNTs addi-
tion in glass fabric/epoxy polymer composites were
improper dispersion and irregular alignment of
MWCNTs in the polymer matrix. Besides this, ag-
glomeration of MWCNTs was another major issue
noticed at higher MWCNTs weight percent addi-
tion during VARIM fabrication of MWCNTs added
glass fabric/epoxy polymer composites.
The tensile and exural properties increased
with the addition of MWCNTs in the GF/EP com-
posite due to enhanced interfacial adhesion that
leads to effective load transfer from epoxy matrix
to CNT to glass fabric.
The optimum ratio in wt.% for MWCNTs addi-
tion was identied as 0.15 wt.% CNT in glass fab-
ric epoxy composite for its improved mechanical
properties. The maximum improvement observed
at 0.15 wt.% addition was approximately 40% and
55% for tensile and exural strengths, respectively.
Beyond 0.15 wt.% CNT, tensile and exural prop-
erties declined at 0.3 wt.% CNTs added to the GF/
EP composite, which was still higher than the neat
GF/EP composite. This decline in mechanical prop-
erties was due to the agglomeration of MWCNTs
llers.
High cycle fatigue results showed a signicant
rise in cycle count for 0.15 wt.% added GF/EP com-
posite relative to neat GF/EP composite. The fric-
tion and wear performance were improved with the
addition of 0.15 wt.% CNT in the GF/EP composite.
The MWCNTs incorporation in glass fabric/ep-
oxy polymer composites enhanced the interfacial
adhesion at the ber/matrix interface thereby reduc-
ing the interface defects which resulted in improve-
ment in static and dynamic mechanical properties
of these composites. Also, MWCNTs addition pre-
vents softening of the glass fabric/epoxy polymer
composite surface in frictional heating conditions
that affect the wear performance of these compos-
ites. Thus, improvement in mechanical and wear
properties of MWCNTs addition in glass fabric/ep-
oxy polymer composites explore opportunities for
applications in wind turbine blade fabrication and
the automobile sector.
ORIGINAL RESEARCH Effect of MWCNTs on static, dynamic…
https://doi.org/10.37819/nanofab.009.1839 Nanofabrication (2024), 9 | 11
Declaration of competing interest
The authors declare that they have no known com-
peting interests that could have appeared to inu-
ence the work reported in this paper.
Data availability
Data will be made available from the corresponding
author on valid request.
Acknowledgment
The composite materials and mechanics laboratory
of IIT Jammu is gratefully acknowledged for pro-
viding facilities for the fabrication of polymer com-
posites and their testing. The authors acknowledge
the IIT Jammu for the funding approved as a seed
grant (No. SGT-100038) to support the research
work proposed in this article. ♦
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