Elastic and Damping Characterization of Biopolymer Composite

Abstract

Biopolymer made from renewable material is one of the most important groups of polymer because of their versatility and they can be manufactured in a wide range of densities, damping and stiffness. In this project, biopolymer based from waste vegetable oil were synthesized and crosslinked with commercial polymethane polyphenyl isocyanate and doped with titanium dioxide (TiO2) to produce renewable polymer foam (RPF).The RPF was compressed by using hot compression moulding technique at 90 °C based on the evaporation of volatile matter and is known as compressed renewable polymer (CRP). The compressive strength, compressive modulus, absorption energy, static stiffness, vibration and damping characteristic of RPF and CRP were determined. The compressive strength and compressive modulus of RPF and CRP samples steadily increased with increasing of TiO2 loading. The highest compressive strength of RPF and CRP samples is at 10 % of TiO2 loading of 96.43 kPa and 354.55 kPa, respectively due to the amount of filler loading. The absorption energy and static stiffness of CRB allows it to absorb more energy than RPF due to the smaller cell size and higher density. The vibration and damping characteristic of both samples were generated at displacements of 1 mm and acceleration of 0.1 G base excitation according to ASTM D3580-9. It was revealed that, the vibration transmissibility characteristic of RPF and CRP samples slightly increased and damping characteristic is vice versa with the increasing of percentages of TiO2 loading at the frequency range of 15 - 25 Hz.