Experimental and Simulation Studies on Waste Vegetable Peels as Bio-composite Fillers for Light Duty Applications

During the last few years, green composites are gaining prominence as alternative materials for aerospace, automotive and construction sectors. Green composites are renewable in nature, economical and biodegradable. The present work mainly focuses on the development of novel green composites to meet the ever-increasing demands of industry for structural applications. Green composites were developed using different fillers obtained from outermost peels of onion, potato and carrot, respectively. The percentage of fillers was varied from 10 to 30% in steps of 10% in the epoxy holding matrix. Accordingly, for each composition, six composite specimens were fabricated and were analyzed for mechanical properties and microstructure studies of the samples were also carried out using SEM. Onion-embedded epoxy samples showed maximum tensile strength (20.8 MPa) and hardness (50.75 HRB) when compared to other fillers. Further, the study revealed that mechanical properties were found to be maximum for 10% volume fraction of all fillers used in the polymer holding matrix. SEM images showed uniform distribution of the fillers in the holding matrix. Finally, the experimental results were compared with FEA and analytical calculation was found in good agreement.