Influence of flame retardant magnesium hydroxide on the mechanical properties of high density polyethylene composites

The effects of incorporating magnesium hydroxide as a flame retardant on the mechanical properties of high density polyethylene which include tensile, flexural, compressive, shear and fracture toughness behaviours were investigated. The weight fraction of the filler material ranges from 10 to 50wt %. The effects of filler weight percent and strain rate during tensile testing by means of a universal testing machine were both studied to identify the behaviour of the produced composites. It was observed that the flexural modulus and Young's modulus increased steadily while the tensile fracture strength and the tensile yield strength were inversely proportional to the weight fraction of magnesium hydroxide. The tensile yield strength showed a steady decrease with the loading of filler material until 10% then it showed a plateau until 50%. The tensile elongation at break decreased sharply between zero and 10% weight fraction, followed by a slight decrease until 50% weight fraction. The flexural strength peaked with the increase of magnesium hydroxide weight fraction. The strain rate showed a dramatic effect on the tensile properties of the samples. The compressive strength and shear strength of specimens were directly proportional to Mg(OH)(2) until 40% and 30%, respectively. The novelty in optimizing between filler content and testing configurations reveal wide range of applications.