Experimental Investigation on Mechanical Properties of Wood Plastic Hybrid Campsites based on Polyethylene/Polyamide and Reinforced with Carbon Fibers

Nowadays, using wood-plastic composites has been growing in different applications as they provide special advantages. However, their application in structural parts was hindered due to poor mechanical properties. In this study, microfibrillation method was used for reinforcement, wherein the polyamide (PA) as the second phase forms microfiber morphology in the main polyethylene (PE) matrix, under special process conditions by stretching the outlet filament from the extruder orifice, . Then, in the second production step, the final parts were injection molded at the temperature below the melting temperature of the PA phase to preserve the microfiber morphology and reinforcing effect. Polyethylene (PE) was used as the main matrix and 20 wt.% of polyamide(PA) was used as the second phase. Stretching ratios were varied at three levels of 1:1, 1:3 and 1:5. Wood and carbon fibers contents were 20 wt.% and 10 wt.%, respectively. Based on the results, with increasing stretching ratio, tensile strength increases up to 20%. Also, the tensile strength of hybrid wood-plastic composite with polyamide and carbon fiber has increased by 14% compared to polyethylene-wood composite.