Static investigation of almond shell particulate reinforced aquilaria agallocha roxb blended epoxy hybrid matrix composite

Abstract

Nowadays, the use of recyclable, eco-friendly materials in automotive industries are growing due to the environmental concerns in place of synthetic polymers. Natural filler materials are increasingly used to reduce the usage of the polymer matrix and to improve the mechanical, thermal properties of the composite materials. Natural fiber and filler incorporated hybrid composite materials are used in places where the load requirements are low. This study focuses on the use of Almond shell as a particulate reinforcement in the Aquilaria agallocha Roxb reinforced Epoxy composite with different volume fractions. The specimens were fabricated using hand layup process and the mechanical properties were investigated. The results had shown that the composite with 20% v/v Almond shell particulate reinforced composite had shown better mechanical properties. While the Visco elastic properties had shown minor improvement due to the incorporation of natural filler in the hybrid composite material.