MECHANICAL BEHAVIOR OF NATURAL MATERIAL (ORANGE PEEL) REINFORCED POLYESTER COMPOSITE

Over the last century, polymers have emerged as one of the most indispensable components used in everyday life, polyester one such example. Until recently, synthetic filler materials have been the preferred choice for reinforcement of polyester to improve its toughness. However, natural filler and fiber materials are emerging as suitable alternatives to synthetic materials for reinforcing polymers such as polyester due to their environment friendliness, high abundance, renewability, and cost effectiveness. Several research efforts have been put to study the effectiveness of natural fiber based materials on the mechanical behavior of polyester composites, focusing mainly on fibers and their weight percent’s within the composites. The present experimental study aims at learning Mechanical behavior of orange peel (OP) reinforced polyester composites. Composites having 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10% weight fraction of orange peel were made using hand layup method. The fabricated composite samples were cut according to the ASTM standards for different experiments. Hardness test, Impact test, compression test and tensile test were carried out at the samples. The maximum hardness, impact, compression, and tensile are getting for the material prepared with the 10 % reinforced orange peel polyester composite.