Search results

At present Glass Reinforced Plastic (GRP) waste recycling is very limited due to its intrinsic thermoset composite nature and non‐availability of viable recovery options. The purpose of this paper is to assess the recycling potential of GRP waste powder and fibre in concrete, cement and rubber composites.

Extensive laboratory experiments were conducted to examine the suitability of GRP waste in concrete, cement, and rubber composites. GRP waste samples were processed and suitable tests were performed to measure the mechanical properties of the resulting three composites.

The findings of this experimental investigation confirmed that GRP waste can be used as a partial replacement for virgin and raw materials in composites. Furthermore, the addition of GRP waste powder and fibre to composites has the potential to improve their mechanical properties.

Results show that the use of GRP waste powder in concrete and rubber composites and GRP waste fibre in architectural cladding panels has technical, economic and environmental benefits. As such, the findings of this research pave the way for viable technological options for substituting quality raw materials by GRP waste in pan‐industry composites and improving their mechanical properties. However, resulting recycled composites depend upon the consistency and quality of GRP waste powder and fibre, and the access to specialised composite material manufacturing facilities. Furthermore, full compliance tests including durability studies and requirements, which may depend upon specific applications, are recommended.

The adopted methodological approach of this research and subsequent experimental results pave the way for viable technological options for substituting quality raw materials by GRP waste in pan‐industry composites. It is anticipated that the results of this research would help diverting GRP waste from landfill to more useful industrial applications.

Growing technological innovations, ample market value and demand for GRP composites all over the world has trigged interest in optimising GRP waste recovery. However, few solutions for GRP waste recycling into value‐added industrial products are being explored. The work reported so far is very limited and did not show viable applications for GRP waste composites. Hence, this research sets out to examine the suitability of GRP waste powder and fibre in concrete, cement, and rubber composites.

This paper gives a bibliographical review of the finite element methods (FEMs) applied to the analysis of ceramics and glass materials. The bibliography at the end of the paper contains references to papers, conference proceedings and theses/dissertations on the subject that were published between 1977‐1998. The following topics are included: ceramics – material and mechanical properties in general, ceramic coatings and joining problems, ceramic composites, ferrites, piezoceramics, ceramic tools and machining, material processing simulations, fracture mechanics and damage, applications of ceramic/composites in engineering; glass – material and mechanical properties in general, glass fiber composites, material processing simulations, fracture mechanics and damage, and applications of glasses in engineering.

Recycling technology for printed wiring boards (PWBs) with mounted electronic components was studied for the purpose of disassembling the boards, recovering useful materials, and reusing these materials. An automatic removal method was developed for the electronic components on the basis of a combination of heating to above the solder melting temperature and applying impacting the shearing forces. Most of the electronic components were recovered undamaged and the solder was able to be recovered as particles. The solder remaining on the board was recovered by abrading the board surface and by using a heating‐impacting process. After these processes, the resin board (a cured epoxy resin board reinforced with glass fibre)was pulverised and separated into a copper‐rich powder (copper: 82 Wt%) and a glass fibre and resin mixture powder (glass fibre‐resin powder) by gravimetric and electrostatic methods. The recovered electronic components, solder and copper‐rich powder were used as valuable metal resources for refining. Moreover, the recovered glass fibre‐resin powder was found to be a useful filler for plastic products such as epoxy resin and ABS (acrylonitrile/butadiene/styrene copolymer) resin.

The aim of the present study is to find the tribological properties of newly developed polyester-based hybrid glass-jute fibre reinforced plastic composites loaded with different weight per cent of hybrid filler particles were investigated under a dry sliding medium from room temperature to 75°C.

The study was carried out using a pin-on-disc wear test set-up. The design of experiments was carried out in a controlled way using a central composite design based on response surface methodology to observe the effect of various parameters i.e. sliding velocity, sliding distance, the temperature of counterface and different applied load conditions during dry-sliding.

The maximum wear resistance was found at 9 Wt% loading of filler, 4 ms^-1 sliding velocity, 30 N applied load, 54°C temperature of the counterface and 1,100 m sliding distance condition. Optimum values of hybrid filler loading, sliding velocity, applied load, the temperature of the counterface and sliding distance for the minimum coefficient of friction value and minimum friction force are 9 Wt%, 4 ms⁻¹, 30 N, 54° C, 1,100 m and 12 Wt%, 3 ms⁻¹, 20 N, 59°C and 1,100 m, respectively. The worn surface morphology was studied using scanning electron microscope, for wear dominant mechanisms.

The tribological properties of newly developed polyester-based hybrid glass-jute fibre reinforced plastic composites loaded with different weight % of hybrid filler particles, were investigated under dry sliding medium from room temperature to 75°C has not been attempted yet.

Plastic has been a very useful material which is very cheap, easy to carry and is resilient to biodegradation. That is why plastic has been used, sometimes reused, and overused due to the reasons mentioned above. As a result, landfills and oceans are full of plastic. But if we consider all the negative health effects, environmental / ecological effects it has in present times, we can understand that it is environmentally very expensive to use plastic. Bangladesh is a relatively young country with dense population and limited resource. Proper management of plastic remains an issue with the country. Considering these, this chapter focuses on how plastic is used, how it is treated as waste and what can be possible solutions in reducing the amount of plastic in Bangladesh.

Ceramic materials and glasses have become important in modern industry as well as in the consumer environment. Heat resistant ceramics are used in the metal forming processes or as welding and brazing fixtures, etc. Ceramic materials are frequently used in industries where a wear and chemical resistance are required criteria (seals, liners, grinding wheels, machining tools, etc.). Electrical, magnetic and optical properties of ceramic materials are important in electrical and electronic industries where these materials are used as sensors and actuators, integrated circuits, piezoelectric transducers, ultrasonic devices, microwave devices, magnetic tapes, and in other applications. A significant amount of literature is available on the finite element modelling (FEM) of ceramics and glass. This paper gives a listing of these published papers and is a continuation of the author's bibliography entitled “Finite element modelling of ceramics and glass” and published in Engineering Computations, Vol. 16, 1999, pp. 510‐71 for the period 1977‐1998.

The form of the paper is a bibliography. Listed references have been retrieved from the author's database, MAKEBASE. Also Compendex has been checked. The period is 1998‐2004.

Provides a listing of 1,432 references. The following topics are included: ceramics – material and mechanical properties in general, ceramic coatings and joining problems, ceramic composites, piezoceramics, ceramic tools and machining, material processing simulations, fracture mechanics and damage, applications of ceramic/composites in engineering; glass – material and mechanical properties in general, glass fiber composites, material processing simulations, fracture mechanics and damage, and applications of glasses in engineering.

This paper makes it easy for professionals working with the numerical methods with applications to ceramics and glasses to be up‐to‐date in an effective way.

As a result of the increasing costs of protecting conventional pipes a number of alternative pipe materials have been introduced in the last two decades with considerable emphasis on plastics. Thus a range of thermo‐plastics such as PVC or Polyethylene have been used for both pressure and non pressure applications in the smaller diameters but the most significant addition to the range of pipe materials has been that of fibre reinforced composites particularly glass fibre reinforced plastics (GRP).

Today, using lightweight structural concrete plays a major role in reducing the damage to concrete structures. On the other hand, lightweight concretes have lower compressive and flexural strengths with lower impact resistance compared to ordinary concretes. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of simultaneous use of waste glass powder, microsilica and polypropylene fibers to make sustainable lightweight concrete that has high compressive and flexural strengths, ductility and impact resistance.

In this article, the lightweight structural concrete is studied to compensate for the lower strength of lightweight concrete. Also, considering the environmental aspects, microsilica as a partial replacement for cement, waste glass powder instead of some aggregates and polypropylene fibers are used. Microsilica was used at 8, 10 and 12 wt% of cement. Waste glass powder was added to 20, 25 and 30 wt% of aggregates, while fibers were used at 0.5, 1 and 1.5 wt% of cement.

After making the experimental specimens, compressive strength, flexural strength and impact resistance tests were performed. Ultimately, it was concluded that the best percentage of used microsilica and glass powder was equal to 10 and 25%, respectively. Furthermore, using 1.5 wt% of fibers could significantly improve the compressive and flexural strengths of lightweight concrete and increase its impact resistance at the same time. For constructing a five-story building, by replacing cement with microsilica by 10 wt%, the amount of used cement is reduced by 5 tons, consequently producing 4,752 kg less CO₂ that is a significant value for the environment.

The study provides a basis for making sustainable lightweight concrete with high strength against compressive, flexural and impact loads.

This paper aims to explore the relationship between the various variables present in the packaging plastic waste management system in the cosmetics industry.

In this paper, the authors deal with plastic packaging waste in the cosmetic industry with the help of system dynamics. The model broadly divides the system into six sections – Cosmetic Packaging, Waste Generation, Waste Collected, Waste Sorted, Waste Treated and Waste Dumped. Businesses have been investing in each section depending on their progress and targets. The authors are looking at case studies of two leading cosmetic brands, L'Oréal and L'Occitane en Provence, to validate the industry practices against our model.

From a business perspective, using the case study methodology for L'Oréal and L'Occitane, the authors inferred that out of the various investment vehicles available, companies are targeting technological advancement and third-party collaborations as they have the potential to offer the greatest visible change. However, most of these investments are going toward the treatment subsection. Still, there is a scope for improvement in the collection and sorting subsystems, increasing the efficiency of the whole chain.

There has been a lot of research on packaging plastic waste management in the past, but only a few of them focused on the cosmetic industry. This study aims to connect all the possible variables involved in the cosmetic industry’s packaging plastic waste management system and provide a clear output variable for various businesses looking to manage their packaging waste because of their products efficiently.

The growing environmental awareness all through the world has motivated a standard change toward planning and designing better materials having good performance, which are very much suited to the environmental factors. The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact on mechanical, thermal and water absorption properties of sawdust-based composites reinforced by epoxy, and the amount of sawdust in each form.

Manufacturing of the sawdust reinforced epoxy composites is the main area of the research for promoting the green composite by having good mechanical properties, biodegradability or many applications. Throughout this research work, the authors emphasize the importance of explaining the methodology for the evaluation of the mechanical and water absorption properties of the sawdust reinforced epoxy composites used by researchers.

In this paper, a comprehensive review of the mechanical properties of sawdust reinforced epoxy composite is presented. This study is reported about the use of different Wt.% of sawdust composites prepared by different processes and their mechanical, thermal and water absorption properties. It is studied that after optimum filler percentage, mechanical, thermal properties gradually decrease, but water absorption property increases with Wt.% of sawdust. The changes in the microstructure are studied by using scanning electron microscopy.

The novelty of this study lies in its use of a systematic approach that offers a perspective on choosing suitable processing parameters for the fabrication of composite materials for persons from both industry and academia. A study of sawdust reinforced epoxy composites guides new researchers in the fabrication and characterization of the materials.