Soni Ashish, Kumar Sameer, Majumder Biprajit, Dam Hriddhi, Dutta Vishal, Das Pankaj Kumar
Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology (NIT) Agartala, Tripura, 799046, India.
Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2024 Jun;31(27):38846-38865. doi: 10.1007/s11356-023-26365-y. Epub 2023 Mar 17.
The increasing demand for shelters, depleting natural resources, concern for plastic waste, and rising awareness for the environment have attracted the contemporary world towards the recycling of waste plastics for the development of an alternative and sustainable building construction material. The plastics suffer due to their poor strength which can be successfully overcome by the reinforcement of natural fibers. The work aimed to develop and investigate the properties of natural fiber-reinforced composites for structural applications such as floor tiles and pavements. The composites were developed by utilizing three different types of waste plastics, namely, low-density polyethylene, high-density polyethylene, and polypropylene with the reinforcement of coconut (cocos nucifera) and Tossa jute (corchorus olitorius) fibers. The evaluation of the density, water absorption, compressive strength, and flexural strength was performed. Moreover, three-body abrasive wear performance was investigated under the conditions of different loads and sliding speeds. The wear mechanism was explored by the morphological analyses of the fractured and worn-out surfaces. The composite HDPE80C20 showed a maximum density of 1.603 g/cm and minimum percentage of water absorption to 0.2022. Moreover, the composite attained a maximum compressive and flexural strength of 40.10 and 10.04 (MPa), respectively. The ranges for abrasive wear were found to be 0.002375-0.20015 (cm) and 0.01987-0.39593 (cm) under the considered conditions of loads and sliding speeds, respectively. The comparative analysis of the properties suggested the reinforcement of 20 wt% of jute fiber with 80 wt% of high-density polyethylene for the development of composites for structural applications. The study highlighted the potential of waste plastics and natural fibers as value-added products for building construction with relevancy from socio-eco and environmental points of view.
对庇护所的需求不断增加、自然资源日益枯竭、对塑料垃圾的担忧以及环境意识的提高，已促使当代世界致力于回收废塑料，以开发替代的可持续建筑材料。塑料因其强度差而存在缺陷，而天然纤维增强可以成功克服这一问题。这项工作旨在开发和研究用于地板砖和人行道等结构应用的天然纤维增强复合材料的性能。这些复合材料是利用三种不同类型的废塑料制成的，即低密度聚乙烯、高密度聚乙烯和聚丙烯，并添加了椰子（椰属）纤维和黄麻（黄麻属）纤维进行增强。对密度、吸水性、抗压强度和抗弯强度进行了评估。此外，还研究了在不同载荷和滑动速度条件下的三体磨料磨损性能。通过对断裂和磨损表面的形态分析来探究磨损机制。复合材料HDPE80C20的最大密度为1.603克/立方厘米，最小吸水率为0.2022%。此外，该复合材料的最大抗压强度和抗弯强度分别达到40.10和10.04兆帕。在所考虑的载荷和滑动速度条件下，磨料磨损范围分别为0.002375 - 0.20015厘米和0.01987 - 0.39593厘米。对这些性能的比较分析表明，用80%的高密度聚乙烯和20%的黄麻纤维增强可用于开发结构应用的复合材料。该研究突出了废塑料和天然纤维作为具有社会生态和环境相关性的建筑用增值产品的潜力。
