A comparative study of characterization and water absorption behaviour of polyester composites with inorganic and organic fibers Debasmita Mishra a,⇑ , Sabyasachi Mohapatra b , Alok Satapathy c a Department of Mechanical Engineering, VSSUT, Burla, Odisha 768018, India b Department of Mechanical Engineering, VSSUT, Burla, India c Department of Mechanical Engineering, NIT, Rourkela, Odisha 769008, India article info Article history: Received 18 June 2019 Accepted 30 June 2019 Available online xxxx Keywords: Composites Polymer Thermal conductivity Boron nitride Polyester Hybrids abstract The research deals with fabrication and characterization of h-BN composites with polyester as the matrix material as well as hybrid composites incorporating inorganic as well as organic filler. The inorganic cera- mic filler like h-BN tends to enhance the thermal properties and imparting moisture resistant properties whereas organic fillers like Peanut husk increases the strength and stability of the composites. The impli- cations of embedment of h-BN on the thermal conductivity (k eff ), mechanical characteristics, and mor- phological parameters are apprehended. It is observed that increase in filler content increases the effective thermal conductivity. With 35 wt% of h-BN the improvement of k eff is appreciably elevated to 23.69%.In case of hybrid composites, the k eff value decreases to some extent due to insulative property of peanut husk fibers but shows an improvement in mechanical properties with addition of peanut husk fibers. Therefore, thermal conductivity is compromised a little for achieving a balance between physical, mechanical and thermal properties. Though theoretical Rule of Mixture model aids to be well co- correlation to estimate k eff for spherical Boron Nitride particles in composites, a better model is proposed for the same. At about filler volume fractions more than 20%, there is a conductivity jump in the compos- ites because of the interaction between Boron Nitride particles and matrix forming conductive networks and this phenomenon occurs at a volume fraction called the percolation threshold. Hence, with higher thermal conductivity and good mechanical properties with very low water absorption, composites with appropriate amount of particulates can be utilized in various fields like heat engine laminates, engine cas- ings, military equipments, fins and heat sinks, printed circuit board substrates etc. where faster heat transfer is a necessity. Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 1st International Con- ference on Manufacturing, Material Science and Engineering. 1. Introduction Materials with high thermal conductivities are a need for indus- tries, especially for industries like automobile, aviation & aero- space. With the advent of change of engine designs and engine integrations and development of high performance and efficient engines, the requirement of dissipating the waste heat energy developed is very essential for the working of the engines as over- heating will cause temporary seize of the engine and might even lead to failure of parts or the complete engine setup. This requires that both the parts and the materials used for outer cover must have high conductivity apart from physical and mechanical prop- erties [1]. Thermal expansion co-efficient of those materials should also be as low as possible. Off-late composite materials which are thermally conductive are being used in diverse fields, but our work basically focuses on the use of polymer composites for IC engine parts like for thermally stable heat engine laminates, engine cas- ings etc. Ceramic matrix composites are temperature resistant and stable at high temperatures as well. It is also insensitive to flaws i.e. if there is flaw within the structure, it will not lead to fail- ure of the total component. They are also lighter than most of the other metal substitutes. Therefore, their use reduces overall weight of the engine and enhances performance of the engine as a whole. They can again be tailored to specific applications according to our requirement by addition of another class of fillers by manufactur- https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.762 2214-7853/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the 1st International Conference on Manufacturing, Material Science and Engineering. ⇑ Corresponding author. E-mail address: debasmitamishra@vssut.ac.in (D. Mishra). Materials Today: Proceedings xxx (xxxx) xxx Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Materials Today: Proceedings journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matpr Please cite this article as: D. Mishra, S. Mohapatra and A. Satapathy, A comparative study of characterization and water absorption behaviour of polyester composites with inorganic and organic fibers, Materials Today: Proceedings, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.06.762