Effect of industrial wood particle size on mechanical properties of wood-polyvinyl chloride composites

Abstract

Wood-polyvinyl chloride (PVC) composites were prepared using industrial wood particles used for manufacturing three-layer particleboards. The effect of particle size (0.25–0.5, 0.5–1, 1–2, and 2–4 mm) on the mechanical properties of the composites was investigated. The effect of cross-section size (4×10, 6×15 and 8×20 mm2) of composite pieces made by an injection moulding method was also studied. Both the particle size and specimen cross-section area significantly influenced these properties. The tensile and flexural properties as well as the impact strength in general increased with increasing particle size, and decreased with increasing cross-section size.