Date palm seeds waste in Algeria: Mechanical characterization of epoxy/date palm seed composites

In this paper a literature review and an experimental study were presented in order to investigate the use date palm seeds waste in the elaboration of composite materials. The literature review showed that Algeria is the fourth world’s largest date producer country. From 2008 to 2018, a growth rate of 50% is recorded in the date production in Algeria. An approach is proposed to estimate the annual quantity of date palm seeds waste obtained in Algeria from soft and dry dates, intended for industrial processing. In the experimental part, the mechanical properties of the composite were investigated using an epoxy matrix and five weight fractions of date palm seeds (0 to 40%). A comparison study is presented between tensile and three points bending results and those available from the literature on a similar composite. Beyond the usual discussions in the literature, the increase in the reinforcement weight fraction in the composite allowed observing and discussing two different behaviours: (i) Low weight fraction (10 and 20% of reinforcement), showed a decrease of the flexural modulus and maximum flexural stress. This is due to the small size of the particles in the composite ultimately leading to a weak particle to particle contact. (ii) When the reinforcement weight fraction increases (30 and 40%), more loads are transferred from the matrix to the reinforcement, known for its high rigidity. In this case, flexural modulus begging to increase and higher values, than that of the matrix, can be obtained for 40% of reinforcement.