Utilization of waste saw dust from wood industry in development of glass fiber epoxy resin hybrid green composite material

Abstract

Sawdust or wood dust is a waste product of woodworking operations. The dust produces lots of environment pollution and is very harmful to the lungs. Effective utilization of this sawdust can resolve lots of environment pollution. The purpose of this study is to optimally utilize the waste sawdust from the wood industry thereby developing and characterizing hybrid green composite. In the present investigation, composite plates of glass fibre reinforced epoxy and glass fibre/sawdust reinforced epoxy were fabricated using hand lay-up technique and these plates were cured in a hot air oven for 8-10 hours at 60-70 ℃. The sawdust was first used as raw and then used by treating with NaOH. The results showed that the mechanical properties of the composites on treatment with NaOH enhances in comparison to the untreated one. The flexural strength of a hybrid composite of 10 % sawdust on treatment with NaOH exceeds that of glass fibre reinforced epoxy resin composite. The tensile strength also increases in the treatment of sawdust. The hardness of treated composites is far more superior to untreated. Water absorption is reduced in treated composites up to 20 % sawdust weight proportion, thereafter it increases.