Cockleshell Structure under Low-Velocity Impact

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a trend to reuse the waste of cockleshell such as reinforcement in epoxy composites formation, with natural fibers due to their low cost, biodegradable, and recyclable. This paper describes the effect of a low-velocity impact test on the composite structure of a cockleshell. The mixture of cockleshell powder, water and sucrose leads to increased mechanical strength and composite biodegradability which is important for waste management and environmental conservation. This study purposely to determine the mechanical behavior of cockleshell reinforced composite panel under low-velocity impact and also to characterize the damage behavior of a cockleshell. The cockleshell was crushed and milled into small size at around 160µm to 200µm. The mechanical behavior was defined by using Hydroshot machine at the velocity of 1m/s. The result shows that 10D (10% of sucrose with a double layer) has the highest impact force which is 54 N. While sample 30D (30% of sucrose with a double layer) has the highest value of energy absorption with value of 0.491 J. Generally, the result shows that double layer has a better value than single layer in terms of force and energy value because of thickness as an important factor in determining the impact response and apparently, the thickest has a great absorption.