INVESTIGATION OF MECHANICAL AND MICROSTRUTURAL PROPERTIES OF COCONUT FIBRE AND WOOD DUST REINFORCED POLYESTER COMPOSITE
BY:
ENGR MRS ABDULLATEEF, TOYEEBAH FOLAKE
DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING
FEDERAL POLYTECHNIC OFFA, NIGERIA
DECEMBER, 2018
A TETFUND SPONSORED RESEARCH
ABSTRACT
Agricultural biomass such as coconut fibres and wood dust are usually discarded as waste in most parts of Nigeria. Burning is one of the methods adopted for disposing most of these wastes. This poor method of disposal usually induces respiratory diseases such as
allergic rhinitis, chronic bronchitis and asthma e.t.c. However; one of the best approaches of reducing wastes is converting them into useful products to maximize their potentials. Composite development is an appropriate method through which agricultural wastes can be optimally utilized. This work aims to develop and study the mechanical properties of coconut fibre and mahogany wood dust used as reinforcement in polyester matrix. Composites samples were produced by casting in different moulds using 10 wt% of coconut fibre with varying wood dusts compositions between 1%- 15 wt % in polyester matrices. The cast samples were cured for 1h and then stripped off the moulds. After the removal from the mould, the samples were further allowed to cure to room temperature before tensile, flexural and hardness tests were performed on them. Scanning Electron Microphone (SEM) analysis was also carried out on some of the polyester matrix composites in order to observe their morphology. The results showed that the curing time decreases with increase in fibre and filler loading while the tensile strength increases with increase in saw dust fillers. However, composite with 10 wt % coconut fibre and 12 wt % wood dust displayed highest tensile strength of 19.89 MPa, while the best strain behavior was obtained from composite with 10 wt % coconut fibre and 1 wt % wood dust. Flexural strength was enhanced at higher fibre and filler loading reaching theoptimum (31.32 MPa) at 10 wt % coconut fibre and 7 wt % wood dust loading. Hardness values increases in a fluctuating manner from 0 to 15 wt % wood dust filler loading. From these results, it can be concluded that optimum composition of coconut fibre and wood dust can be used to develop composites with relatively better mechanical properties that are comparable with those of synthetic composite. Thus, agricultural biomass can serve as alternative reinforcement materials from the production of composite.
Keywords: polyester, coconut fibre, wood dust, mechanical properties, hybrid composite.
