Comparing the Flexural Properties of Peanut Oil Cake Powder/Rice Straw Based Natural Polyester Composites and Peanut Oil Cake Powder Composite

Abstract

Aim: The major aim of this research work is to improve the flexural properties of polyester hybrid composites made from Peanut oil cake powder and Rice straw fibre mate. Materials and Methods: In this research work peanut oil cake powder acts as a control group and Rice straw fibre mate acts as an Experimental group. Each group is constructed with 20 samples and a total of 40 samples. This study used an independent sample by using G power of 80 %. The fibres were treated in 5% NaOH solutions for varying periods of time. Particle size of peanut oil cake powder (µm), number of layers of Rice straw fibre mate (no), and NaOH treatment (hours) were all chosen at three different levels for composite fabrication. The specimen was cut into the size required by ASTM for flexural strength estimation. The L9 orthogonal array was used for composite fabrication.The composite materials were fabricated using hand-lay-up technique. Results: As per the results obtained, The flexural strength of peanut oil cake powder composite and hybrid composites are 28.31 MPa and 30.43 MPa the significant values 0.007 (P<0.05). Conclusion: The proposed peanut oil cake powder based composite and hybrid composite's flexural strength has been tested. It was concluded that the hybrid composite has a 8.61% higher flexural strength than peanut oil cake powder.