The Relationship Between Plastic Virginity and Engineering Properties of Wood Plastic Composites
4 Abstract: This study attempted to investigate the relationship between plastic virginity and physico-mechanical properties of wood plastic composites. To meet this objective, wood flour was mixed with either virgin or recycled polypropylene at 40%, 50% and 60% by weight fiber loading. The samples were made by melt compounding and then injection molding. The amount of coupling agent was fixed at 2% for all formulations. Then physical and mechanical properties of composites were measured according to ASTM standard. Then, all the experimental data were collected and analyzed with the analysis of variance techniques and suitable model was selected with the simple's linear regression model. Results indicated that the flexural strength, flexural modulus, tensile strength and tensile modulus of composites of recycled plastic composites were higher than those of virgin plastics. Also, the water absorption and thickness swelling of samples decreased with the increase of recycled plastic loading. Furthermore, optimization processes have been carried out to determine the suitable combinations of plastic virginity variables in order to attain desirable physical and mechanical properties of wood plastic composites.
Wood-polymer composites
provides a comprehensive survey of major new developments in wood-polymer composites - reviews the key aspects of manufacture, including raw materials and manufacturing technologies - discusses pro ...
Effect of hybridization and chemical modification on the water‐absorption behavior of banana fiber–reinforced polyester composites
The water sorption characteristics of banana fiber–reinforced polyester composites were studied by immersion in distilled water at 28, 50, 70, and 90°C. The effect of hybridization with glass fiber and the chemical modification of the fiber on the water absorption properties of the prepared composites were also evaluated. In the case of hybrid composites, water uptake decreased with increase of glass fiber content. In the case of chemically modified fiber composites, water uptake was found to be dependent on the chemical treatment done on the fiber surface. Weight change profiles of the composites at higher temperature indicated that the diffusion is close to Fickian. The water absorption showed a multistage mechanism in all cases at lower temperatures. Chemical modification was found to affect the water uptake of the composite. Among the treated composites the lowest water uptake was observed for composites treated with silane A1100. Finally, parameters like diffusion, sorption, and permeability coefficients were determined. It was observed that equilibrium water uptake is dependent on the nature of the composite and temperature. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 91: 3856–3865, 2004