UNIVERSITI TEKNIKAL MALAYSIA MELAKA
THERMAL ABSORPTION PROPERTIES OF SPENT TEA LEAF FILLED POLYURETHANE COMPOSITE MATERIAL
This report submitted in accordance with requirement of the Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) for the Bachelor Degree of Manufacturing Engineering
(Engineering Materials) (Hons.)
by
SITI AISYAH BINTI SAFUAN B051010180
890425-10-5092
UNIVERSITI TEKNIKAL MALAYSIA MELAKA
BORANG PENGESAHAN STATUS LAPORAN PROJEK SARJANA MUDA
TAJUK: Thermal Absorption Properties of Spent Tea leaf filled Polyurethane Composite Material
SESI PENGAJIAN: 2011/12 Semester 2
Saya SITI AISYAH BINTI SAFUAN
mengaku membenarkan Laporan PSM ini disimpan di Perpustakaan Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka (UTeM) dengan syarat-syarat kegunaan seperti berikut:
1. Laporan PSM adalah hak milik Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka dan penulis. 2. Perpustakaan Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka dibenarkan membuat salinan
untuk tujuan pengajian sahaja dengan izin penulis.
3. Perpustakaan dibenarkan membuat salinan laporan PSM ini sebagai bahan pertukaran antara institusi pengajian tinggi.
APPROVAL
This report is submitted to the Faculty of Manufacturing Engineering of UTeM as a partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Bachelor of Manufacturing Engineering (Engineering Materials) (Hons.). The members of the supervisory committee are as follow:
……… (Principal Supervisor)
ABSTRAK
ABSTRACT
DEDICATION
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Completion of this project report was made possible because of numerous supports and helps given to me when I was working on it. Thus, it is a great pleasure for me to write this special acknowledgement to every single individual that helped and inspired me to finish this project. I would like to express my highest gratitude to all of them.
First and foremost, I would like to express my thankfulness and appreciation to my supervisor, Miss Chang Siang Yee, for her supervision, guidance, understanding and patience throughout this research work. Also, I would like to thank her for her precious time. Special thanks also goes to my co-supervisor, Prof. Dr. Qumrul Ahsan, for his support and encouragement. All valuable information provided by him is much appreciated. Not to forget to other lecturers, friends and lab technicians for sharing their experiences, skills, opinions, advises and guidance in handling the equipments throughout the study.
TABLE OF CONTENT
Abstrak i
Abstract ii
Dedication iii
Acknowledgement iv
Table of Content v
List of Tables x
List of Figures xii
List of Abbreviations, Symbols, and Nomenclatures xv
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Background Study 1
1.2 Problem Statement 3
1.3 Objectives 3
1.4 Scopes 4
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW 5
2.1 Introduction 5
2.1.1 Thermal Insulation 5
2.1.3 Commercial Thermal Insulation Materials 8
2.2 Thermal Insulation of Synthetic Materials 10
2.2.1 Fiberglass 10
2.3 Thermal Insulation of Composite Materials 15
2.3.1 Composite 15
2.3.2 Synthetic Fiber-Reinforced Composite 15
2.3.3 Natural Fiber-reinforced Composite 17
2.3.4 Tea Leaves Composite 23
2.4 Effect of Fiber-Loading on Composite Materials 26
2.4.1 Physical Properties 26
2.4.2 Thermal Properties 27
2.4.2.1 Influence of the cell gas 27
2.4.2.2 Influence of density 27
2.4.2.3 Influence of temperature 28
CHAPTER 3: REEARCH METHODOLOGY 29
3.1 Raw Materials 29
3.1.1 Polyurethane (PU) 29
3.1.2 Spent Tea Leaves 31
3.2 Characterization of Raw Materials 32
3.2.1 Digital Imaging Microscopy 32
3.2.2 Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) 33
3.2.3 Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) 34
3.2.4 Density Measurement 35
3.2.5 Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) 36
3.2.6 Thermogravimetry Analysis 36
3.3 Fabrication of Spent Tea Leaves Filled Polyurethane Composite 37
3.3.1 Preparation of Spent Tea Leaves 37
3.3.2 Fabrication of Spent Tea Leaves Filled Polyurethane Composite 38
3.3.3 Sample Preparation 39
3.4 Sample Characterization 40
3.4.1 Density Measurement 40
3.4.2 Water Absorption 40
3.5 Sample testing 42
3.5.1 Thermal Test Measurement 42
3.6 Microscopic Observation 43
3.7 Flow Chart of methodology 44
CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 45
4.1 Characterization of Raw Material 45
4.1.1 Digital Imaging Microscopy (DIM) 45
4.1.2 Particle Size Analyzer (PSA) 47
4.1.3 Density Measurement 48
4.1.4 Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) 50
4.1.5 Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) 53
4.1.6 Thermogravimetry Analysis (TGA) 55
4.1.7 Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) 56
4.2 Characterization of Composite 58
4.2.1 Physical Properties 58
4.2.1.1 Density Measurement 58
4.2.1.2 Water Absorption 59
4.2.2 Thermal Properties 65
4.3 Testing 66
4.3.1 Thermal Test 66
CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK 70
5.1 Conclusion 70
5.2 Future Work 72
REFERENCES 73
APPENDICES
LIST OF TABLES
2.1 Properties and performance of insulating materials (Pasanen et al., 2000) 7
2.2 Density and thermal conductivity of expanded polystyrene
(Yucel et al., 2009) 11
2.3 Density and thermal conductivity result of different type of rock wool
(Itewi, 2011) 12
2.4 Different types of polyurethane foams (Polymer Foams Handbook, 2010) 13
2.5 Thermal conductivity of the polyester resin and fiber glass percent and hardness
(Almtori et al., 2010) 16
2.6 Advantages and disadvantages of using natural fiber in composites
(Pickering, 2008) 18
2.7 Effect of density on different properties (Luamkanchanaphan et al., 2012) 19
2.8 Thermal conductivity of various materials (Luamkanchanaphan et al.,2012) 19
2.9 Thermal conductivity of banana/sisal composites (Indicula et al., 2006) 20
3.1 Physical and chemical properties of Polyurethane (KNT Edge, Malaysia) 30
4.1 Measurement of STL fibers for BM-FAE, SW-BHE and Fiber-FAE 46
4.2 Density of STL fibers; BM-FAE, SW-BHE and Fiber-FAE. 49
4.3 Table 4.3: FTIR Adsorption Bands Typical of Celluign Materials.
LIST OF FIGURES
2.1 Classification of the most used insulating materials (Papadopoulus, 2004) 8
2.2 Density of PU/coir at different fiber wt% (Azmi et al., 2005) 20
2.3 Maximum force of PU/coir panel at different fiber wt%
(Azmi et al., 2005) 21
2.4 Shear stress of PU/coir panel at different fiber wt% (Azmi et al., 2005) 21
2.5 (a) Untreated coir fiber surface at 75x magnification; (b) Treated coir fiber surface at 75x magnification and (c) Treated coir fiber surface
at 200x magnification (Azmi et al., 2005) 22
2.6 Composition of tea leaves (O-CHA, 2010) 24
2.7 DTA-TG curves of the PWT material (Demir, 2006). 25
3.1 Polyurethane (PU) 30
3.2 The three grades of STL obtained from BOH Sdn Bhd, Cameron
3.8 Drying oven (Memmert, Germany) 37
3.9 Process fabrication of the composite 38
3.10 Non-standard procedure for thermal testing 42
4.1 Particle size result for BM-FAE, SW-BHE and Fiber-FAE fiber. 47
4.2 FTIR Spectrums of Spent Tea-Leaf Fibers with BM-FAE, SW-BHE,
and FIBER-FAE 50
4.3 Phase changes from solid to glass transition temperature of STL Fibers 53
4.4 Degradation temperature for STL fibers; Fiber-FAE by TGA 55
4.5 Measured PU/STL composite density at different types of fiber
and loading 58
4.6 Effect of fiber type for same fiber loading: (a) 5%, (b) 10%, (c) 15%,
(d) 20% 61
4.7 Effect of fiber loading for same fiber type: (a) BM-FAE, (b) SW-BHE,
(c) Fiber-FAE 63
4.8 Colour water after water absorption test for Fiber-FAE:
(a) Pure polyurethane, (b) 5% of fiber, (c) 10% of fiber, (d) 15% of fiber,
(e) 20% of fiber 64
4.9 Phase change from solid to glass transition temperature of PU100 and
PU/BM-FAE-20 composite 65
4.10 Figure 4.10: The rate of thermal gradient for different fiber loading at test temperature of 50, 70, 90 and 110°C:
4.11 The rate of thermal gradient for different type of fiber at test temperature
of 50, 70, 90 and 110°C: (a) 5% fiber loading, (b) 20% fiber loading 68
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, SYMBOLS, AND
DSC - Differential Scanning Calorimetry
EPS - Expanded Polystyrene
FTIR - Fourier Transform Infrared
HC - Hydrocarbon
HCFC - Hydrochloroflourocarbon
HCN - Hydrogen cyanide
HFC - Fycroflourocarbon
HRR - Heat release rate
iPP - Isotactic polypropylene
KBr - Potassium Bromide
MDI - Di-phenyl methane di-isocyanate
NaOH - Sodium Hydroxide
NFC - Natural Fiber Composite
OH - Hydroxyl group
PALF/LDPE - Pine apple leaf fiber/Low density polyethylene
PE - Polyethylene
pMDI - Polymeric by product
PP/OMMT - Polypropylene/organophilic montmorillonite
PSMA - Polystyrene maleic anhydride
PU100 - Pure PU
PU - Polyurethane
PU/BM-FAE - BM-FAE type of fiber filled polyurethane composite
PU/SW-BHE - SW-BHE type of fiber filled polyurethane composite
PU/Fiber-FAE - Fiber-FAE type of fiber filled polyurethane composite
PU/STL - Spent tea leaves filled polyurethane
SE - Secondary electron
SEM - Scanning Electron Microscope
STL - Spent tea leaves
SW - Sweeping
TDI - Tolune di-isocyanate
TGA - Thermogravimetric analysis
TI - Thermal insulation
WTL - Waste tea leaves
°C - degree Celcius
Tg - Glass transition temperature
t - thickness
W/mK - Watt per meter Kelvin
W - Watt
w - width
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of study
As global warming has become a major concern for human beings nowadays, the use of thermal insulation (TI) structure in building construction is burgeoning. TI structure is regarded as one of the most energy efficiency improvements in buildings and also an important factor to achieve thermal comfort for building occupants. In fact, the thermal insulation structure is not an independent energy production or conservation system, but part of the complex structural elements which form a building’s shell. Commercial TI structures are commonly made from synthetic materials such as fiberglass, mineral wool, expanded polystyrene (EPS) and polyurethane (PU) foams. Although these materials have good physical properties such as low thermal conductivity, good moisture protection and fire resistance, they can be hazardous to human health and environment (Demant, et al. 1994). Fiberglass has an adverse effect on human health. When fiberglass is handled, cut or otherwise disturbed, people may be exposed to airborne fiber and resulted in skin and eye irritation or emphysema and lung cancer through inhalation
purpose are coconut husk (Viswanathan et al. 2000; Van Dam et al. 2004), kenaf core (Xu et al. 2004), cotton (Alma et al. 2005), bagasse (Widyorini et al. 2005), oil palm (Feng et al. 2001; Khalil et al. 2007; Suradi et al.2010)1, flax and hemp (Kymalainen and Sjoberg, 2008), wood, (Kawasaki and Kawai, 2006; Azizi and Faezipour, 2006; Akgul et al. 2007; Loh et al. 2010), coffee husk and hulls (Bekalo and Reinhardt, 2010), and papyrus (Tangjuank, 2011). Among these fibers, fiberboard fabricated from papyrus fiber reinforced natural rubber latex showed the most promising result with thermal conductivity values of 0.029 W/mK. This is comparable to commercially available insulating concrete foams made of EPS which shows a thermal conductivity values of 0.033 W/mK.). Despite the low thermal conductivity behavior, lignocellulosic fibers also outweigh other commercial synthetic thermal insulation materials in the regard of density. The density of natural fiber is 1.15 – 1.50 g/cm3 whereas 2.4 g/cm3 for fiberglass. Research shows that decreasing of the density of TI materials reduced the thermal conductivity value (Luamkanchanaphan et al., 2012)
It is undeniable that natural fibrous materials exhibit numerous advantages to be functioned as TI material. A tropical country like Malaysia is rich in the production of crops such as coconut, pineapple, banana, palm oil, and rice. Tea leaves (Camellia Sinensis) is one of the fibrous plants available in abundance which can be found at
1.2 Problem Statement
Natural fibers have shown to possess low thermal conductivity and density which is advantageous for thermal insulation purpose. However, when dealing with these natural fibers, an undesirable attribute of the fiber is their ability to absorb moisture from the atmosphere in comparatively large quantity (Chawla, 1998). Upon moisture absorption, most of these fibers swell and become prone to microbial attack as well as biological decay. In most buildings, the building materials are exposed to moisture due to high humidity due in the weather or the use of the air-conditioning system. The presence of moisture encourages the growth of moss or algae which may disfigure and deteriorate the properties of the building materials made of natural fibers. Spent tea leaves obtained from tea producing factories are optimistically considered as a new resource because it exhibits antimicrobial properties. Spent tea leaves are expected to show higher durability in thermal insulation applications than other natural fibers owing to the high phenolic extractive content which retards the growth of moss or algae. Hence, spent tea leaves serve a scope for further research as thermal barrier component.
1.3 Objectives
The objectives of this project were as follows:
1. To characterize various grade of spent tea leaves extracted from different parts of tea plant in terms of physical, chemical and thermal properties.
2. To fabricate thermal insulation board using various grades of spent tea leaves filled polyurethane composite through open molding technique.
