Metallurgical and Materials Engineering- Conference Papers

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Browsing Metallurgical and Materials Engineering- Conference Papers by Subject "Thermosetting resins"

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    Open Access
    Thermo-mechanical properties of unsaturated polyester reinforced with coconut and snail shells
    (International Journal of Composite Materials, 2015) Adeosun, S.O.; Akpan, E.I.; Akanegbu, H. A.
    This study investigates the effects of coconut shell (CS) and snail shell (SS) volume fractions on the thermal and mechanical properties of Unsaturated Polyester Resin (UPR) composite. Varying percentages of the fillers were used as reinforcement in the unsaturated polyester resin to form composites and mechanical, thermal, flexural and morphological characteristics were examined. Results show that tensile strength, elongation at break, flexural strength, and hardness of the composite increase as filler concentration increases. Maximum tensile elongation of composites is found to possess 375 % improvement over virgin UPR while the micro-hardness a 125% improvement over virgin UPR. The maximum tensile strength of the composite is also a 140 % improvement over that of virgin UPR. However, impact strength of the composite decreases with increase in filler concentration. FTIR spectra of UPR composites show that, at 30 vol. % filler content there is good and effective interfacial interaction between UPR matrix and the fillers. The thermal properties from DTA measurement show that the glass transition temperature, Tg and Tm of the composites, at 5, 20 and 50 vol. % reinforcement contents, are lower and higher respectively to the cured-virgin UPR matrix. The morphology of fillers dispersion into the polymer matrix observed using the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) indicates homogeneous dispersion in the UPR matrix with strong interfacial adhesion between the fillers and UPR matrix. These results in enhance mechanical properties.