Influence of Moisture Absorption on some Mechanical Properties of Groundnut Shell Powder Reinforced Waste LDPE Composites

Abstract

Joseph Jacob^* and Shinggu D. Yamta

The effect of water absorption on the mechanical properties of groundnut shell powder (GSP) filled waste low-density polyethylene (wLDPE) has been investigated. The composite samples were developed via melt mixing and compression moulding techniques respectively. The percentage weight fraction of the reinforcement was varied from 4-20 % wt (4, 8, 12, 16, and 20 % wt) respectively. Incorporation of GSP into wLDPE was observed to improve the tensile, flexural, and impact strength of the material; which was observed to increase with the amount of treated GSP incorporated. However, immersion of the composites samples in water for a period of 720 hours led to degradation of the fibre-matrix interface and created poor stress transfer efficiencies resulting in the reduction of tensile strength, elastic modulus, flexural strength, impact energy while increment in % elongation and flexural modulus were recorded. This indicates that the mechanical properties of GSP reinforced waste LDPE could be adversely affected by long-term exposure to moisture absorption.