Materialwissenschaft und Werkstofftechnik, cilt.49, sa.1, ss.73-88, 2018 (SCI-Expanded)
© 2018 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, WeinheimThis study aims to investigate the rheological and mechanical properties of polypropylene when reinforced by wood flour. In the study, wood flour (WF) was added as filling material to polypropylene (PP), and its effects were investigated. The grain size of the wood flour was 300 μm. Wood flour was mixed into polypropylene material at different rates of weight. Viscosity changes of the polypropylene at various temperatures and pressure values of the concentration rates were documented. As a result, viscosity increases as the amount of wood flour filling is increased; yet as temperature, pressure and shear rate are increased, viscosity decreases. The study also focuses on the changes in its mechanical properties of polypropylene reinforced with wood flour. The tensile strength of reinforced polypropylene at varying percentages (wt. 5 %, wt. 10 % and wt. 15 %) was observed to decrease by 11 %, 16 % and 21 %, respectively, compared to that of non-reinforced polypropylene. Additionally, impact tests showed that the highest energy absorption was in 10 % wood flour reinforced polypropylene.