Effect of combined natural and synthetic filler addition on the behaviour of glass fibre reinforced composite

ABSTRACT

This study was focused on developing and evaluating the impacts of wood and graphite fillers on an E-glass fibre-reinforced polyester composite. The fillers employed in this study include teak, casuarina, psuedon wood dust, graphite, and hybrid fillers such as casuarina and graphite fillers. They tested for tension, flexural, impact, hardness, and dynamic mechanical analysis. In the current work, the optimum loading level is 15 wt% which was determined through testing at various loading levels. The experimental results have shown that the mechanical, physical, and thermomechanical properties of glass fiber reinforced polyester composites improvement mechanism analysis depend upon chemically treated wood dust fillers by avoiding surface delamination during fabrication. By using the hand layup method, composites were created by maintaining the fibre constant while distributing the fillers following the rule of mixture; a hybrid composite has a filler distribution of 1:1. Hybrid composite has exhibited increased flexural strength and hardness by 72.77%, 63.33% compared to casuarina wood of 15 wt% by avoiding incompatibility of casuarina wood filler with the resin. The glass transition value of the hybrid composite was increased by 1.4% compared to the above said casuarina wood composite, making it a more thermally resistant material. The hardness of the hybrid composite has increased by 2.78% compared to the teak wood of 15 wt% composite.

KEYWORDS:

• Composites
• hybrid fillers
• mechanical properties
• DMA

Highlights

• Conventional composites, as well as Hybrid composites, were fabricated successfully.

• Minimised usage of synthetic filler and replaced with a natural waste filler in the fabrication of hybrid composite exhibited good material properties at a reduced cost.

• Hybrid composites with multiple secondary reinforcements had better performance than mono-filled composites.

• Among wood fillers, casuarina wood filler has shown better performance qualities.

Abbreviations

GFRP, glass fibre reinforced polyester composite; NaOH, sodium hydroxide; MEKP, Methyl ethyl ketone peroxide; CW, Casuarina wood; TW, Teak wood; PSW, Psuedon wood; GR, Graphite powder; CWGR, Mixed casuarina wood and graphite fillers; ASTM, American society for testing and materials; SEM, Scanning electron microscope; DMA, Dynamic mechanical analyser; E¹, Storage modulus; E¹¹, Loss modulus; Tan δ, Tan delta; T_g, Glass transition temperature; m, Metre; mm, Milli metre; MPa, Mega pascal; KJ, Kilo joules; ⁰C, Degree centigrade; Sec, Second; HZ, Hertz; mm², Area; N, Newton; µm, Micron; CW15, Composite containing 15 wt% of casuarina wood filler; TW15, Composite containing 15 wt% of teak wood filler; PSW15, Composite containing 15 wt% of psuedon wood filler; GR15, Composite containing 15 wt% of graphite filler; CWGR15, Composite containing 15 wt% of CWGR filler

Acknowledgements

This is to thank Yenplast Pvt Ltd, Cherlapally, Hyderabad, for their generous contribution of materials and facilities to the workshop.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.