Some mechanical properties of WPCs with wood flour and walnut shell flour

Abstract

This study used a high-density polyethylene (HDPE) polymer matrix, pine-wood flour (PWF) and walnut-shell flour (WSF) to produce wood–plastic composite (WPC) boards. The PWF and WSF filler amounts were adjusted to 20%, 30%, and 40% by weight. Some of the mechanical properties of the produced composite boards were comparatively investigated, such as the flexural strength, flexural modulus, deformation at break, tensile strength, tensile modulus, and elongation at break. Flexural tests and tensile tests were performed according to ASTM D790 and ASTM D638, respectively. According to the data obtained, the flexural strength, deformation at break, tensile strength, and elongation at break decreased as the filler content increased. In addition, the flexural modulus values of all the test groups increased with the filler content. However, the tensile modulus values of the test groups that used the WSF filler were smaller than those of the groups without filler.