Characterisation and Properties of Recycled Craft Shell Powder/Epoxy Composites

The properties of polymer composites can be tailor made by incorporating suitable filler and fiber as a reinforcement in the polymer matrix. In this work, craft shell powder had been used a natural filler in the Epoxy resin and the composites were prepared at various proportions(4%, 8%, 12%, 16% and 20%) of craft shell powder using hand layup method. The specimens were subjected to various mechanical testing such as tensile test, flexural test, impact test as per ASTM standards. The test results revealed that particulate filler reinforcement resulted in marginal increase in tensile strength but the properties decrease at higher volume fraction of the fiber. But, the values of mechanical moduli had shown better improvement due to filler addition. SEM images were taken to analyse the interfacial bonding between the matrix and filler particles.