Date of Award
2016
Publisher
North Dakota State University
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Awarded
Master of Science (MS)
Program
Mechanical Engineering
Department
Mechanical Engineering
College
Engineering
Faculty Advisor
Bajwa, Dilpreet
Description
This research concentrates on the recyclability of two wood plastic composites (WPCs) - wood flour/HDPE and wood flour/PLA composites. Two different filler loadings (30 and 50 wt%) were considered for each polymer composite. Each composite formulation contained 3 wt% of a coupling agent, and was individually recycled up to six times by extrusion process. Samples for mechanical and thermo-mechanical tests were prepared by injection molding. All test results were statistically analyzed with a confidence level of 95%. Additional tests such as fiber length measurement, GPC, DSC, TGA, FTIR, and SEM were also performed at specific reprocessing cycles. After reprocessing six times, all formulations showed lower relative decrease in most stiffness properties but higher relative increase in most strain properties. In strength properties, both HDPE composites showed lower relative decrease after reprocessed six times; however, higher and lower filler PLA composites showed sharp decrease reprocessed at second and six times respectively.
Recommended Citation
Bhattacharjee, Sujal, "Impact of Recycling on the Mechanical and Thermo-Mechanical Properties of Wood Flour/High Density Polyethylene and Wood Flour/Poly Lactic Acid Composites" (2016). Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mechanics. 142.
https://digitalcommons.ndsu.edu/mech-eng-applied-mechanics/142
Rights
NDSU Policy 190.6.2
Rights Link
https://www.ndsu.edu/fileadmin/policy/190.pdf
Author ORCID Identifier
0000-0002-4209-4231
Handle Identifier
https://hdl.handle.net/10365/28285