Effect of the Minority Components on the Flexural Strength and Fracture Toughness Properties of Ternary Polymer Blends Based Unsaturated Polyester

Abstract

Polymer blends have become a topic of great economic and research interest in order to improve the processing and properties of individual polymers due to their relatively low impact strength especially at low temperatures and have low resistance to cracking. In this work four groups of ternary polymer blends have been prepared, by Hand Lay-Up molding technique. The first two groups of ternary polymer blends consisting on the unsaturated polyester (UP) as a based material, blending with the natural rubber (NR)) at the weight fraction ratio (3% and 6%) and poly-methyl meth acrylate (PMMA) with a weight fraction (0, 5, 10, 15%), whereas,  the other two groups are consists of unsaturated polyester is blending with polysulphide rubber (PSR) instead of NR  and adding PMMA at the same ratios of weight fraction. The study included the effect of the selected ratios of secondary polymeric materials (NR, PSR and PMMA) on the impact strength and fracture toughness properties for the prepared ternary polymer blends. The flexural and impact strength tests were performed at room temperature. The results showed that the values of (flexural modulus, impact strength and fracture toughness) increase with the content ratio of PMMA in the blend. Moreover, the results shown that the groups of polymer blends that contain NR possess a higher the mechanical properties compare with their counterparts of other groups samples of polymer blends that contain on PSR instead of NR material.