Effect of Egg Shell Composition on the Flexural and Hardness Properties of Epoxy Resin/ Egg Shell Particles Composite
I. C. C. Iloabachie
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Institute of Management & Technology, Enugu, Nigeria.
O. T. Ajina
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Institute of Management & Technology, Enugu, Nigeria.
A. C. Chime *
Department of Agricultural & Bio-Environmental Engineering, Institute of Management & Technology, Enugu, Nigeria.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The effect of calcined egg shell particles on the mechanical properties of epoxy resin had been studied. The egg shell was sun dried for 3 days and calcined at 800oC in an electrically fired furnace model KGVB. The calcined egg shell was ground in a locally fabricated pulverized machine and sieved using Sieve Model 567924/173281Endecotts in accordance with ASTM standard. Microwave digestion system and an inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer (ICP-MS) were used to determine the chemical composition of the egg shell. The egg shell particles were mixed with epoxy resin to develop a composite casted by open mold casting. The flexural and hardness properties of the developed composite was determined using Universal Testing Machine model TUE-C-100, observing ASTM D790 standard and Rockwell Scale K hardness testing machine according to ASTM D785 respectively. The results showed that the calcined egg shell contained mostly CaO. Maximum flexural strength of 12MPa was observed at 25 wt. % egg shell particles. The highest hardness value of HRN 393 was observed at 20 wt. % egg shell particles. The produced composites may be applied where moderate strength is required.
Keywords: Calcined egg shell, Epoxy Resin, hardness, mold casting