Abstract
In this experimental research, the effect of waste ground rubber tire powder (WGRT) on vibrational damping behavior and static mechanical properties of polypropylene was investigated. Hammer tests along with modal analysis were performed to evaluate the forced vibration behavior of composite plates under one edge clamped support condition while tensile tests were performed to assess the static mechanical properties. A comparison of test results showed that all the natural damped frequencies of the compounds in the first three modes have a decreasing trend upon increasing the content of tire powder in the polypropylene matrix due to the decrease in Young's modulus and the stiffness. Also, all the damping ratios of the compounds in the first three modes showed an increasing trend with raising the weight percentage of tire powder in the polypropylene matrix due to energy dissipation. Composites with 60 wt.% WGRT powder showed the highest Young's modulus reduction (80.38%), frequency reduction (35.42%) and damping ratio increase (84.45%) compared to pure polypropylene in the first mode. Generally, incorporation of tire powder to polypropylene matrix reduced the static mechanical properties of all the specimens