Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Tensile and Flexural Behavior of Wood-Plastic Composites Based on Changes in Wood Powder Amount

In this research, the mechanical behavior of composites made with polyethylene matrix and wood powder reinforcement have been investigated. In order to improve the mechanical properties, the wood powder has been added to polyethylene at three levels of 30, 40 and 50 wt.%. The material was mixed using an internal mixer Haake and then the material was removed from the mixer and was granulated by a crushing machine. Finally, the granules were molded using an injection molding machine and tensile test specimens were made according to ASTM D638 standard and bending test specimens were made according to ASTM D790 standard. After preparing the specimens, a tensile and flexural test performed on them. The results of the mechanical tests show that the amount of elastic modulus increased with increasing the amount of wood powder so that the highest amount of elastic modulus was observed in the specimens containing 50 wt.% wood powder. Also, the highest strength in the tensile test was observed at the level of 30 wt.% of the wood weight and the highest flexural strength was in the 50% level of wood weight. Also, mechanical tests were simulated using Abaqus software.