The Properties of Agricultural Waste Particle Composite Reinforced with Woven Cotton Fabric

Abstract

The production of particle composites using agricultural waste materials is an area of significant research interest. 1ngeneral the properties of agricultural waste particle composites are considered to be inferior to those of commercial particleboards. In this study, the inclusion of woven cotton fabric has been used to overcome this drawback. Particle composites were manufactured from coconut shell- and rubberwood-particles using urea formaldehyde as a binder and combined with woven cotton fabric to reinforce the material. The fabricated agricultural waste particle composites were then evaluated with respect to the effect of the number of fabric layers in the composite structure and the inherent effect on the mechanical (flexural and impact strength) and physical (water absorption and thickness swelling) properties. Agricultural waste particle composites without any reinforcement were used as control samples in this study. The test results indicate that the flexural and impact properties of particle composites reinforced with woven cotton fabric are better than those for the control samples. It was also determined that both the mechanical and physical properties improve with increasing fabric layers, except with respect to thickness swelling.