Dynamic Mechanical Behaviour of Banana-pseudostem-filled Unplasticised Polyvinyl Chloride Composites

The dynamic mechanical behaviour of unplasticized polyvinyl chloride (UPVC) and its composites reinforced with banana pseudostem (BPS) fibres has been studied, with special reference to the effect of filler loading and temperature. Dynamic properties such as the storage modulus (E’) and damping behaviour (tan d) were evaluated as a function of BPS volume fraction. It was found that the storage modulus increased with increasing BPS content in the samples. At lower temperatures (in the glassy region), the E’ values of the samples were highest in both unmodified and acrylic-modified BPS/UPVC composites with 40% fibres. The glass transition temperature (T _g ) associated with the damping peaks of BPS/UPVC composites reached its highest value at 94.9 °C with 20% fibre loading for unmodified BPS/UPVC composites, whereas, in the case of acrylic-modified composites, CA4 had the highest T _g at 98.7 °C.