The mechanical and thermal behaviour of unsaturated polyester matrix (UPM) composite filled with pistachio shell particles (PSP)

Abstract

This investigation focuses to study the effect of the content of micro scale natural pistachio shell particles on the mechanical and thermal properties of unsaturated polyester matrix composites. The composite of polyester resin reinforced with 10, 20, 30 and 40 wt% PSP was made by hand mixing followed by compression molding. Several mechanical properties viz. tensile strength, flexural strength, impact strength are examined to understand the behaviour of composite material. The thermo-gravimetric analysis of the prepared composites is conducted. The field emission scanning electron microscope is used to investigate the surface morphology of the fabricated composite. The end result from the observation discovers that, the properties of the composites are improved. The maximum tensile, flexural and impact strength is resulted at 40, 40 and 10 wt% respectively.