Engineering and Technology Journal

This research was carried out to study the mechanical properties and thermal and acoustic insulation properties of prepared polymer composite. Petiole date palm fibers with the length (2-3mm) and with different volume fraction ratio (10, 20, 30 and 40%) were used as filler in preparation of polymer composite.
The research imply study effect of pre- deformation for petiole date palm fiber by chosen compression loads (0, 2, 4 and 6 MPa) on the mechanical properties as well as on the thermal and acoustic insulation properties of prepared composites. It was concluded that the pre-deformation to the fibers improves the thermal and acoustic insulation properties of prepared composite, as well as an increase in the tensile strength and hardness values with increasing compression load on the fibers. The highest values of the tensile strength and hardness reach to (133MPa) and (106) respectively for the polymer composite filled with 40% volume fraction of petiole date palm fibers which pre-deformed under compression load equal to 6 MPa.

The research aims to prepare composite materials of unsaturated polyester resin reinforced by palm fiber extracted from different locations (Trunk, Petiole (bases leaflet date palm tree), Rachis and Panicle) of the palm tree in Iraq. The study included the effect of fiber length and their location within the plant as well as the percentage of the volume fraction (0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40%) on the mechanical properties, thermal and acoustic insulation for all the samples prepared.
The results showed that mechanical as well as the thermal and acoustic insulation properties increase with increased the volume fraction for all kinds of the date palm fibers, whereas decrease with increased fiber length also those properties depend on the natural of the date palm fibers as the following sequence (samples reinforced by petiole fibers > samples reinforced by trunk fibers > samples reinforced by rachis fibers > samples reinforced by panicle fibers).

In the present work, polymer blends were fabricated by mixing two polymers
of polypropylene and poly (methyl methacrylate) mixed in different weight
percentage and different particle size of Iraqi kaolin. The study of some
mechanical, physical and thermal conductivity properties was carried out on all
composites. The mechanical tests included (impact, hardness, modulus of
elasticity, yield strength, elongation, stress at break and compression), Lee's disc
method was used to calculate the coefficient of the thermal conductivity of
specimens before and after reinforcement with kaolin powder. The physical
properties test included absorption tests, as well as X-ray measurement. The
results have shown that after the reinforcement with different weight percent of
kaolin powder, most mechanical properties such as hardness , modulus of
elasticity and compression increase while impact and elongation decrease with
increasing in weight percentage and a decreasing in particle size. The results have
shown also that the coefficient of thermal conductivity decreases with increase
weight percentage the water gain is decreased with the increase in weight percent
and decrease in particle size of the filler. X-ray diffraction pattern of filled
samples indicates that addition of kaolin adversely affects the crystallization of
PP/PMMA blend.