FLEXURAL PROPERTIES OF WOOD SAWDUST AND OIL BEAN POD SHELL FILLED COMPOSITE

Composites reinforced with natural materials play a vital role in engineering applications, like the fabrication of automobile parts, furniture making, etc. The objective of this present research is to determine the flexural properties (flexural strength, flexural energy) of oil bean pod shell (OBPS) and hardwood sawdust (SD) reinforced composite in epoxy matrix, at different filler loading. Hybridized composite samples used for this research were prepared with 20, 25, 30, 35, and 40% filler (SD and OBPS in the ratio of 1:1) reinforcements in the ratio of 1:1. The flexural test was conducted on the samples according to ASTM D-790, using the Universal Testing Machine. From the results obtained, the fillers loading had significant (P ≤0.05) effect on the three flexural properties studied. The flexural strength increased from 33.44 to 67.65 MPa, the flexural energy increased 53.1%, while the flexural yield strength increased from 23.58 to 55.4 MPa. The results obtained from this research will be helpful the automobile and construction companies.