Author(s) :

Sadiq, A.S., Adisa, A.B..

Volume/Issue :

Abstract :

Fibre-reinforced composite materials are synthetic or man-made materials. These materials are used for many engineering applications especially automobile structures and components. One of the mechanical properties that constitute the central focus in usage is the compressive strength. The central focus of this work is to determine the degree of effectiveness of sawdust in the improvement of the compressive strength of continuous strand mat reinforced polyester composite using hand lay-up technique of production. Composites consisting of the continuous strand mat glass fibre and polyester resin were produced using hand-lay up open mould technique. Five other composites consisting of varying masses (between 4-20g) of sawdust, fixed mass (45g) of continuous strand mat glass fibre and varying masses of polyester resin (between 75-95g) were produced using hand-lay up open mould technique respectively. These composite specimens were subjected to compressive tests using universal testing machine. An efficiency of 84.4% improvement on the compressive strength of the non sawdust composite was obtained via strength to weight ratio criteria. The results indicated that sawdust is a very good material that may be used for improving the compressive strength of Fibre-reinforced polyester composite.

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