Study of Mechanical Properties of Coconut Shell Powder and Tamarind Shell Powder Reinforced with Epoxy Composites

Coconut shell is non-food part which is one of the hard agro wastes. Coconut shell is high potential material due to its high strength and modulus properties. Coconut shell powder exhibits admirable properties compared to other materials such as low cost, renewable, high specific strength to weight ratio, low density less abrasion to machine and environmental friendly. Mixing coconut shell powder with epoxy resin enhances its properties and creates a wide range of applications. Tamarind shell is also a non-food part which is an agro waste. After the tamarind fruit is extracted these shells are disposed as waste. As these shells are hard they provide better strength when used in composite materials as an additive. The components are made by mixing coconut shell powder, tamarind shell powder and epoxy resin at definite ratios and is tested for mechanical properties. The present study deals with preparation and experimentally testing the mechanical properties of Coconut Shell Powder and Tamarind shell powder reinforced epoxy resin composites. 3 different percentages of coconut shell powder and epoxy resins are made to form composite material and then results are analysed for those 3 composite materials. From the results it has been found that tamarind shell powder with coconut shell powder, increases the tensile properties by around 50%. The best result and increase in mechanical properties is obtained when the composition of the material is 50% of Coconut shell powder and 5% of Tamarind shell powder along with 45% of epoxy resin. (paper)