INVESTIGATING THE IMPACT AND MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF RECLAIMED RUBBER AND SAWDUST COMPOSITE

Abstract

Reclaimed rubber composites can offer promising mechanical properties and a new way of incorporating waste materials for sustainable recycling. Sawdust is a good additive for producing reclaimed rubber composites due to its low density, lower cost, availability, sustainability, and ease of handling and processing. This thesis studies the performance of reclaimed rubber-sawdust composites of different wood content. Reclaimed rubber composites of different wood content were manufactured for performance evaluation. Samples of 0, 1, 5, 10, 15, and 20% weight content of sawdust were manufactured and tested to understand the effect of wood content on performance. The performance was assessed based on different tests: tensile testing, hardness testing, Mooney viscosity testing, and water retention. Three to five samples of each wood content were manufactured for each test to assure the repeatability of the results. The tensile strength and rupture strain (ductility) decreased with the increase of wood content. The highest tensile strength (6.67 MPa) was observed in the virgin samples, while the lowest strength (2.49 MPa) was observed in the 20% wood content sample. Moreover, the highest hardness was 78.50 for 20% wood content. At the same time, the lowest value was 58.25 for the virgin reclaimed rubber sample. Furthermore, the highest MU value was 29.80 for samples of 20% wood content corresponding to an increase of 30% relative to the virgin reclaimed rubber sample that exhibited an MU value of 23. The optimum wood content percentage was 1-5%, resulting in properties within the acceptable range of industry standards. Finally, a production cost analysis found that incorporating 5% sawdust would save up production costs by 617, 18510, 225205 QR daily, monthly, and yearly, respectively