Mechanical Properties Of Polyester Resin Impregnated With Dabai Nutshell Particles

Hong, Wei Hao (2020) Mechanical Properties Of Polyester Resin Impregnated With Dabai Nutshell Particles. [Final Year Project Report] (Unpublished)

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Abstract

Canarium odontophyllum, or typically known as Dabai is a fiait where the nutshell is generally discarded as a biomass waste. Dabai Nutshell (DNS) has potential in becoming a natural reinforcement in composites. Therefore, this paper presents the study of microstructure and mechanical properties ofDNS. The mechanical properties ofDNSreinforced composites were also studied. However, it is noted that due to the Covid-19 global pandemic, extended review was done as a replacement for the incomplete experiments such as the mechanical testing on both DNS and DNS-reinforced composites to provide sufficient evidence to support the expected results deduced. The microstructure of the DNS was characterised using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) by cutting the DNS into ring-shaped and cross-sectional samples. The SEM images showed that the DNS was observed to have randomly developed hollow and empty cells surrounded by vascular bundles of fibres that distributes across its endocarp. Besides, the SEM images also showed the presence of bubble-like cells or sclerenchyma cells which are similar to that of the Macadamia nuts and Cocoyol fruit nuts, both which are tough nuts to crack. The presence of the fibre bundles and sclerenchyma layers attributes to the high strength of the DNS. Samples of whole DNS are put through compression test. It is expected that the compression tests will produce a force-deformation curve similar to that of the curves for Macadamia and Almond nuts. The curve is deduced to have a short initial elastic portion, followed by a more pronounce non-elastic portion that terminates abruptly, indication of brittle failure. Epoxy and polyester resins were used to fabricate the DNSreinforced composites. The composites contain 5 wt %, 10 wt %, 15 w %, 20 wt % and 25 wt % of DNS particles respectively. The cross-section of the composites was observed under SEM and the mechanical properties of the DNS-reinforced composites in terms of modulus and strength were investigated through tensile testing. SEM images of the composites was expected to show good distribution of the DNS particles at below 1 0 wt% content. The results obtained from the mechanical tests was expected to show that adding DNS particles as reinforcement increases the modulus as particle content increases, but tensile strength reduces 'as particle content increases. It is also expected that the composites impregnated with 10 wt % DNS particles shows the highest tensile strength. Lastly, DNS-epoxy composites were deduced to perform better than DNS-polyester composites under tensile loading

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