EVALUATION OF MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF TREATED HYBRID PARTICULATE REINFORCED POLYESTER COMPOSITES

In recent years, natural fibers along with mineral fillers are being used to fabricate hybrid composites to achieve enhanced mechanical properties. In this paper, the fabrication and mechanical characterization of novel hybrid particulate reinforced polyester composites are presented. Also, the effect of treated hybrid particulate reinforced composites is investigated. In this work, groundnut shell powder (GSP) and silicon carbide (SiC) hybrid particulates are used as constituents in different volume fractions to fabricate six different composite specimens (three each with untreated and treated GSP) and hand layup process is used for fabrication of these composite specimens. The alkaline malic acid was used for surface treatment. The effect of hybrid particulates, on tensile, flexural and impact properties of the polyester composites were investigated with and without surface treatments. It is observed that alkaline treated composite at 30% volume fraction of hybrid particles resulted in improved mechanical properties and such composites can be used in low load bearing applications.