Mechanical Properties of Highly Filled PVC/Wood-Flour Composites

The present article evaluates the effect of variation of WF on the tensile strength, modulus, and elongation at break. The pin-bearing properties usually correlate well with tensile properties. Tensile strength and pin-bearing strength decrease but tensile modulus increases on addition of WF. The tensile strength, pin-bearing strength, and mode of pin-bearing failure also depends on the void content. Increase in void content has a detrimental effect on all the mechanical properties. Wide variation is observed in impact strength because of unpredictable void content due to use of non-vented extrusion process. TGA indicates insignificant effect of WF on thermal stability of composites. Infrared spectroscopy indicates some interaction between PVC and WF.