POWDER FILLERS FOR POLYMER COMPOSITES: GROUT, SAND AND KAOLIN
Keywords:
New Materials, Waste, Mechanical BehaviorAbstract
New development trends and the demand for materials that meet market and technological demands result in the widespread consumption of natural resources, along with the significant production of waste. Therefore, the development of new materials that meet current demands and aim to reuse waste or expand the applicability of existing materials becomes important. Therefore, composites emerge as a possible alternative to solve this problem. These composites are generated from the mixture of different components, generally arranged with phases called matrix and reinforcement. Therefore, this research aims to evaluate the mechanical behavior of polymer composites with the inclusion of fillers widely used in different industrial sectors: grout, sand, and kaolin. Mechanical characterization was performed through tests on specimens with dimensions defined by ASTM D638. Unsaturated terephthalic polyester resin was used as the matrix phase of the composite, and the MEK (Methyl Ethyl Ketone) V388 catalyst was applied to accelerate curing. Tensile strength tests were carried out, the average maximum stress values obtained were, respectively: 8.05 (± 1.38) MPa, 14.48 (± 1.70) MPa and 10.76 (± 1.47) MPa, using grout, sand and kaolin fillers.
