Influence of hydrothermal ageing on the mechanical properties of a wood polymer composite

Ravichandran, Vaseetha (2021) Influence of hydrothermal ageing on the mechanical properties of a wood polymer composite. Project Report. Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka, Melaka, Malaysia. (Submitted)

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Abstract

Wood polymer composite provide economical and environmentally advantage from the timber industry. Wood fibre, like many other natural fibres are very susceptible to moisture. Thus, in spite of rapid development of the innovative work in wood fibre composites, these materials actually require explicit contemplations prior to being embraced by industry in the underlying applications. Therefore, the aim of this study is to investigate the influence of hydrothermal ageing of rubberwood polymer composite by implementing the Weibull statistical analysis to evaluate how their tensile strength is significantly affected by ageing process. The material used in this study is wood polymer composite (WPC) in the form of granule containing recycled polypropylene (50.3%), rubberwood flour (44.5%) , MAPP (3.9%), UV fi Iler (0.2%) and lubricant (1 %) by weight ratio. Besides that, calcium carbonate was used as filler at the ratio of 7%. This material is then used to prepare specimen using hot compression moulding. The water immersion testing was carried out in water bath at room temperature for 30 days and fol lowed by tensile test for aged and unaged specimen. After that, Weibull statistical analysis was used to determine the failure probability of the composite. Tile composite showed a 5.22% of weight uptake at the end of the 30 days immersion time. The average rate of diffusion of a rubberwood fibre reinforced with recycled polypropylene is 2.7 x 10-3 mm2/s, following Fickian behaviour. The tensile strength of the composite degraded with increasing water immersion due to the exposure of moisture. The tensile strength reduced from 26.32 MPa to 14. 76 MPa after immersion. Their modulus is also reduced from 1.67 GPa to 0.78 GPa. This is possibly due to tile presence of water molecules that changes the structure and mechanical properties of the composite. The strain at break increase from 1.59% to 1.88%, suggesting that the composite become more ductile, possibly due to the effect of the plasticizing. Meanwhile, the Weibull statistical analysis also shows that the unaged specimen has higher reliability compared to the aged specimen. That is because, the Wei bu I I modulus of unaged is higher which is 42.4 compared to the aged which is 4.18. In conclusion, the mechanical and tensile failure of the rubberwood fibre reinforced with recycled polypropylene are greatly influence by the present of the moisture due to the hydrophilic nature of the rubberwood. Thus, their properties can be improved by providing surface protection in order to reduce the water absorption rate as well as increase the reliability of the composite to performwell even in moist environment

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