Effect of olive pomace on the mechanical properties of polymer composite material

This work aims to study the effect the mixing natural particles micro-size olive pomace (OP) on the tensile and flexural properties of glass fiber reinforced polymer composite (GFRP). Hence, mechanical behavior of recycled olive pomace filled glass fiber reinforced epoxy composites was studied in order to develop an engineering material for industrial applications. The modifying of GFRP was conducting by adding six weight fractions of olive pomace (0.5, 1, 2, 5, 10, and 15%) with a grain size of 75 μm. The composite specimens were prepared by hand lay-up technique and cut according to ASTM standards. It has found the higher values of flexural and tensile strength occur at 5 %wt. of OP filler. In addition, the tensile test results showed that with more addition of OP above 5% the elongation at the break decreased. Maximum damping ratio is obtained from 10 % wt addition of OP to glass/epoxy. the consequence of addition OP, Damping ratio is increased from 0.407 value and 70 % higher than full glass/epoxy composite.