ABSTRACT
Africa is the third-richest continent in the world in terms of bamboo species. Despite these laudable natural resources, most African countries still use asbestos cement board as one of their major building materials. This is chiefly due to the high cost of equipment and technologies associated with non-asbestos-fiber cement board production. The current research seeks to underscore the possibility of utilizing these massive continent resources for non-asbestos-fiber cement board production by employing the existing production process in the asbestos cement industries via an innovatively developed laboratory-simulated Hatschek process. Non-asbestos-fiber cement boards incorporating kraft and bamboo fibers were successfully produced in the laboratory using this innovative method based on Hatschek technology, with natural fibre addition in the range of 2-6 wt.%. Experimental results revealed that the Flexural strength and deflection of the board improved significantly, producing optimum values of 10.41 MPa and 2.0 mm, respectively for composite board reinforced with 10 wt.% and 6 wt.% of kraft pulp and bamboo fibers, respectively. The SEM morphology of the fractured surfaces revealed the mode of composite fracture as well as good interaction at the fiber-matrix interface. Overall, the mechanical properties of the developed composite boards satisfy the minimum requirements of relevant standards based on fiber cement flat sheets and can be employed for internal building applications in low-cost housing estates in developing countries. The outcome of this research indicates that the current industrial production process based on Hatschek technology can be employed for non-asbestos-fiber cement board production using the studied natural fiber.
ABSTRACT
This paper aims to find out the effect of different weight percentages of geopolymer filler in glass-reinforced epoxy pipe, and which can achieve the best mechanical properties and adhesion between high calcium pozzolanic-based geopolymer matrices. Different weight percentages and molarities of epoxy hardener resin and high calcium pozzolanic-based geopolymer were injected into the glass fiber. By manually winding filaments, composite samples were produced, and they were then allowed to cure at room temperature. To determine how well the geopolymer matrices adhere to the fiber reinforcement, the microstructure of the composites' surfaces and perpendicular sections were examined. Maximum values of compressive strength and compressive modulus were 94.64 MPa and 2373.58 MPa, respectively, for the sample with a weight percentage of filler loading of 30 wt% for an alkali concentration of 12 M. This is a relatively wide range of geopolymer weight percentage of filler loading from 10 wt% to 40 wt%, at which we can obtain high compressive properties. By referring to microstructural analysis, adhesion, and interaction of the geopolymer matrix to glass fiber, it shows that the filler is well-dispersed and embedded at the fiber glass, and it was difficult to determine the differences within the range of optimal geopolymer filler content. By determining the optimum weight percent of 30 wt% of geopolymer filler and microstructural analysis, the maximum parameter has been achieved via analysis of high calcium pozzolanic-based geopolymer filler. Fire or elevated temperature represents one of the extreme ambient conditions that any structure may be exposed to during its service life. The heat resistance or thermal analysis between glass-reinforced epoxy (GRE) pipe and glass-reinforced epoxy pipe filled with high calcium pozzolanic-based geopolymer filler was studied by investigating burning tests on the samples, which shows that the addition of high calcium pozzolanic-based geopolymer filler results in a significant reduction of the melted epoxy.
