A STUDY ON THE DYNAMIC MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF RECYCLED POLYPROPYLENE FILLED GROUNDNUT FILLER COMPOSITE

Abstract

The recycled polypropylene groundnut filler composite was prepared with the aid of the two-roll and compression moulding machines. Tensile strength/elastic modulus/elongation at break tests and dynamic mechanical analysis tests were done on the material. The obtained results showed that the sample without groundnut filler gave a better tensile strength of 33.33 N/M² when compared with 2 composite compositions of 95/5, 90/10 and 85/15 that had low tensile strength results of 23.73 N/M² , 22N/M² and 24.93N/M² respectively. The elastic modulus control sample was 43.11N/M², and this was also higher than the compositions with groundnut filler which recorded 27.72 N/M² , 24.33 N/M² and 32.96 N/M² respectively. The sample without filler had high elongation at a break of 179.16 % and less elongation at a break of 95.21 %, 74.03 % and 66.49 %. The Storage modulus of the sample without groundnut filler at 10 Hz was 1500 Mpa at onset transition temperatures of 48.2 ⁰C and 51.8 ⁰C. The increase of thermal energy to a temperature of 114 ⁰C decreased the storage modulus to 200 Mpa at 2 HZ. The matrix/filler compositions of 80/20 and 75/25 recorded a storage modulus of 880 Mpa and 1300 Mpa at 5 Hz. The control sample (sample without groundnut filler) recorded a loss modulus of 157 Mpa and this decreased to 127 Mpa and 83 Mpa at 10 Hz for the 80/20 and 75/25 matrix/filler compositions. The damping factor at 100/0 was 0.196 while the 80/20 and 75/25 showed damping coefficients of 0.205 and 0.200 respectively. The material can, therefore, be utilized at a higher damping coefficient of 0.205.