Effect of industrial wood particle size on mechanical properties of wood-polyvinyl chloride composites

Abstract

Wood-polyvinyl chloride (PVC) composites were prepared using industrial wood particles used for manufacturing three-layer particleboards. The effect of particle size (0.25–0.5, 0.5–1, 1–2, and 2–4 mm) on the mechanical properties of the composites was investigated. The effect of cross-section size (4×10, 6×15 and 8×20 mm2) of composite pieces made by an injection moulding method was also studied. Both the particle size and specimen crosssection area significantly influenced these properties. The tensile and flexural properties as well as the impact strength in general increased with increasing particle size, and decreased with increasing cross-section size.