Flexural creep behavior of composites from polypropylene and rubberwood flour

Abstract

The effects of plastic grades and composition contents on creep behavior of extruded composites from polypropylene and rubberwood flour were investigated. Virgin polypropylene gave lower creep strain than recycled polypropylene, both in composites and as unfilled plastic. An increase of rubberwood flour content reduced the creep deformation of the composites, both virgin and recycled plastics. Maleic anhydride-grafted polypropylene as a coupling, 5 wt% addition increased the creep strain of the composite materials. Likewise, an addition of 1 wt% ultraviolet (UV) stabilizer content significantly enhanced the creep deformation. The results recommend that the amount of UV stabilizer should be as small as possible to limit its negative effects. Fourelement Burger model offered a good fitting on the creep behavior of each composite formulation.