Mechanical and wear behaviour of pulverised poultry eggshell/sisal fiber hybrid reinforced epoxy composites

This study investigates the effects of calcined and uncalcined eggshell particles (ESP) and sisal fiber (SF) on the mechanical and wear properties of eggshell particles/sisal fiber reinforced epoxy composites. Egg shell was processed to obtain calcined and uncalcined egg shell particulate of -43 μm and sisal fibers was extracted by soil retting and treated with NaOH. The composite was developed using the hand lay-up method by blending the selected materials in predetermined proportions. SEM/EDS and XRD of the egg shell particles were carried out while mechanical and wear properties of the developed composites were evaluated. SEM images of the fracture surfaces were also examined. The results showed that eggshell particles contain CaCO₃ and the uncalcined ESP/SF reinforced epoxy composite showed improved properties than the calcined ESP/SF composites in most of the tests performed. Also, it was observed that most of the tests gave the best results at different weight fractions. However, 3 wt. % emerged as the weight fraction with optimum values.