DEVELOPMENT OF DECKING BOARDS FROM CARBONIZED WALNUT SHELL ASH PARTICULATE/EPOXY RESIN

Abstract

The conversion of agricultural wastes into possible raw materials for industry has recently received much interest. As a result, a decking board has been developed that uses carbonized walnut shell ash particulate as a filler and Resin Epoxy as a binder. The filler (walnut shell ash particle) was carbonized and sieved into three grades: 100μm, 355μm, and 710μm. Press time, pressure, temperature, and filler-to-epoxy resin ratio were the independent variables used to create twenty experimental samples. Thermal conductivity, water absorption, thickness swelling, and density tests were performed on the generated samples, and the results formed the basis for the Central Composite Design. Response Surface Methodology was used to assess the experiment's outcomes, and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used for validation. The best values for the production parameters were 23.234% filer/epoxy resin, 10 minutes press time, 178oC press temperature, and 13.134MPa press pressure, resulting in a density of 673.456 g/cm3, 0.412% water absorption, 0.865% thickness swelling, and 0.456W/M.K thermal conductivity. This finding demonstrates that agro-waste breadfruit seed coat is an effective filler material in the manufacturing of decking boards. The results revealed that the finer the sieve size, the better the properties. The results achieved in this study were compared to those of commercial decking boards, which are very similar.

 

Keywords: Composite, Walnut ash particulate, epoxy resin, agro waste, decking boards.