Mechanical and morphological performance of aegle marmelos shell powder reinforced composites for lightweight structural applications
摘要
This study focuses on the development and characterization of biodegradable Aegle Marmelos shell powder (AMSP) reinforced epoxy composites. The composites using these materials were fabricated through a hand-layup molding process, incorporating AMSP of five different grain sizes (600 µm, 425 µm, 300 µm, 212 µm, and 150 µm). Mechanical tests, such as tensile, flexural, hardness, and impact tests, were performed on these composites, which have proven that the lower the grain size of the reinforcement, the higher the mechanical strength. The results indicated that composites with smaller grain sizes, particularly 212 µm and 150 µm, exhibited superior mechanical properties. The 212 µm grain size composite displayed the maximum tensile strength (20.19 MPa) and tensile modulus (775.46 MPa) with a peak load of 152.78 kg, while the 150 µm composite achieved the best flexural strength (142.81 MPa) and flexural modulus (16.62 GPa) with a peak load of 25.88 kg. Both the 212 µm and 150 µm composites demonstrated the highest impact strength of 2 J/mm2 and an impact load of 35 kg. Additionally, the 425 µm composite showed the highest hardness property at 84 RHN. Overall, composites with grain sizes of 212 µm and 150 µm offered the best mechanical performance, making them suitable for a wide range of applications. The results of the present study show that AMSP-reinforced composites can be used for low-load structural applications.