Effect of particle size and weight percentage variation on the mechanical properties of periwinkle shell reinforced polymer (epoxy resin) matrix composite

Abstract

Polymers are very interesting and useful materials that have many applications in various areas of engineering. Composites formed with these materials are known to exhibit outstanding mechanical, electrical, and thermal properties. In this work, a polymer, epoxy resin, was reinforced with a biodegradable material, periwinkle shell (PWS) particles, using the hand lay-up method. The PWS was pulverized using a ball mill and three sieve sizes of the PWS (75, 150, and 300 µm) were sieved out. Various samples of the composite were produced by reinforcing the epoxy resin matrix with 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 wt% of each of the PWS particle sieve sizes. The samples so formed were subjected to the following mechanical tests: hardness, tensile, compressive, and impact tests. It was found out that the samples of composites showed higher values of the parameters tested for than ordinary epoxy resin showed. In the samples of composites, it was found that the samples with a higher weight percentage of the PWS reinforcement recorded higher values of those mechanical properties tested for. The higher the weight percentage of the PWS in the composite, the greater the value of the mechanical property tested for.