Vibration exposure of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) reinforced silica (sio2): Comparison of different source of silica (sio2) as filler

Abstract

Application of vibration absorber in devices yields protection to the device and the operator from unpleasant and disturbing vibration. The study aims to highlight the characteristics of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) reinforced with Silica (SiO2) and the capability of the polymer composites as vibration absorber. Two different sources of SiO2 were investigated i.e commercially available SiO2 (CS) and SiO2 as-derived from rice husk ash (RHS), which were included as the filler in form of particulate to PDMS matrices. PDMS filled SiO2 (CS and RHS) of 2 to 6 wt% SiO2 panels were fabricated via the compression technique. The panels were characterized through elemental analyses as to confirm the compositions of SiO2, morphological analyses, volume and density analyses as well as vibration properties analyses. It was confirmed that the addition of SiO2 (both CS and RHS) at 2 to 6 wt% improved the vibration reduction and provided good vibration exposure time of grinder applications. Moreover, PDMS-RHS composite panel was proven to adopt better vibrational reduction properties than PDMS-CS composite panel.