Author(s): Santhanakrishnan S, Sridhar K, Sreekrishna R, Srivatsan R

Abstract: Fiber-reinforced polymer composites have played a dominant role for a long time in a variety of applications for their high specific strength and modulus. The fiber which serves as reinforcement in reinforced plastics may be synthetic or natural. Past studies show that only synthetic fibers such as glass, carbon, etc., have been used in fiber-reinforced plastics. Although glass and other synthetic fiber-reinforced plastics possess high specific strength, their fields of application are very limited because of their inherent higher cost of production and hazards during production. In this present work, the effect of naturally available filler material (Benzoyl chloride treated and untreated ground nutshell powder) on the Mechanical properties of epoxy resin had been investigated. Specimens were prepared with different volume proportion (15%, 25%, 35% & 45%) of groundnut shell powder in epoxy resin using a vacuum bag molding method. Tests have been conducted to determine its mechanical properties.