Effect of olive pomace particles content on mode I and mode II delamination fracture of S-glass fiber reinforced composites

This work aims to investigate the effect of micro-sized olive pomace (OP) particle incorporation on the mode I and mode II delamination fractures of glass fiber reinforced polymer composites. In this way, it is possible to recycle the natural OP materials and benefit from the development of high performance engineering polymer matrix composites in industrial applications as well as producing low cost composite. For this purpose, six different OP weight ratios (0%, 0.5%, 1%, 5%, 10%, and 15%) were used for modification of matrix resin of composite samples. Double-cantilever beam, end-notched flexure tests were conducted according to ASTM standards for evaluation of mode I and mode II fracture delamination toughness properties of the OP filled composites. Scanning electron microscopy photos were taken from the fractured test samples after the mode I and II interlaminar fracture tests to characterize their morphological nature. The results showed that the mode I and mode II inter-laminar fracture toughness values reached the highest value at OP content of 5 wt% with enhancement of 13.8% and 60.4%, respectively.