INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL OF HUMANITIES,
ENGINEERING & PHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES

Onyekwere Okwuchi Smith, Government Rabboni Mike & Agu Onyedikachi Stanley

Federal University Wukari, Taraba State & Enugu State University of Science and Technology, Enugu, Nigeria

The influence of filler content and particle size on mechanical properties of forest flame pod flour-filled high density polyethylene composite was studied. The biofiber was characterised. Response surface methodology was used to optimise the preparation of the composite. A second order polynomial model was developed to predict the mechanical properties based on central composite design. The results show that the forest flame pod used for the study contains; 21.14% lignin, 59.31% cellulose, 21.70% hemicellulose. It was found that the composite design was best fit for a quadratic regression model. The selected optimum condition for the developed composite is 40 mesh particle size and 29.51wt% filler content at 88.8% desirability. Under the optimum condition, the mechanical properties were 10.63MPa, 6.37%, 0.533GPa, 70.20KJ/m2 and 372.89 Pa for tensile strength, percentage elongation, tensile modulus, impact strength and Brinnel hardness respectively. The optimum conditions were validated with little error of less than 0.2%