Comparative Analysis of Rigid PVC Foam Reinforced with Class C and Class F Fly Ash

Abstract

Fly ash particles are usually spherical and based on their chemical composition; they are categorized into two classes: C and F. This study compares the microstructural, mechanical and thermal properties of extruded rigid PVC foam composites reinforced with class C and class F fly ash. The mechanical properties: such as tensile and flexural strength of composites containing class C fly ash were superior to the composites containing class F fly ash particles. Composites containing 6 phr class C fly ash showed a 24% improvement in the tensile strength in comparison to a mere 0.5% increase in composites reinforced with class F fly ash. Similarly, the addition of 6 phr of class F fly ash to the PVC foam matrix resulted in a 5.74% decrease in the flexural strength, while incorporating the same amount of class C fly ash led to a 95% increase in flexural strength. The impact strength of the composites decreased as the amount of either type of fly ash increased in the composites indicating that fly ash particles improve the rigidity of the PVC foam composites. No significant changes were observed in the thermal properties of the composites containing either type of fly ash particles. However, the thermo-mechanical properties measured by DMA indicated a steep increase in the viscoelastic properties of composites reinforced with class C flyash. The microstructural properties studied by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) confirmed that fly ash particles were mechanically interlocked in the PVC matrix with good interfacial interaction with the matrix. However, particle agglomeration and debonding was observed in composites reinforced with higher amounts of fly ash.

Mechanical Properties and Dimensional Stability of Rigid PVC Foam Composites Filled with High Aspect Ratio Phlogopite Mica

“…Composite samples reinforced with 10% mica showed the highest UTS value of all the composites and the UTS started to decrease beyond this loading. The improvement in the UTS of the composites in comparison to the pristine polymer may be attributed to higher dispersion of mica platelets in the cell walls at lower concentrations and the good bonding between the platelets and the polymer matrix [20] [21]. However, at higher concentrations of mica, i.e.…”

Effect of E-glass Fibers and Phlogopite Mica on the Mechanical Properties and Dimensional Stability of Rigid PVC Foams

“…The magnitudes of E' and the peak intensity of E" increased with the addition of GM in the composites, and all the samples exhibited improved visco-elastic properties. The improvement in the peak intensities of E" can be attributed to the increase in energy dissipation ability of the rigid polymer matrix in the presence of solid fillers which increases the polymer-filler and filler-filler slippages at T g [28,29] . On the other hand, the increase in E' can be directly related to the presence of the glass fibers and mica fillers that impart higher stiffness and rigidity to the polymer matrix [6,7,30] at room temperature.…”

Ductility and Flame Retardancy Enhancement of PVC by Nanostructured Fly Ash

“…But, brittleness and low thermal stability of a PVC, however, have limited its application at high temperatures. Therefore, improvement in these properties of PVC will broaden its application in various fields [8,9].…”