Optimization of waste kota stone dust filled epoxy composite by analytical hierarchy process (AHP) approach

Abstract

In this paper, a new class of epoxy composites with Kota stone dust as fillers are fabricated by varying the content of filler from 10 wt% to 40 wt%. Different mechanical properties like tensile strength, flexural strength, compressive strength and hardness are evaluated for all the fabricated samples. The main objective of the work is to select an appropriate combination of epoxy and Kota stone dust by using Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) for providing the optimized results. Selecting the most suitable combination of filler and matrix material plays a leading role in the production of epoxy composites. AHP is a multi-criteria assessment method which organizes decision- making and simplifies it. The method is explored for the first time for such combination of matrix and filler material. Finally, it is estimated that the most appropriate epoxy composites for the manufacturing of partition boards are epoxy with 20 wt% of Kota stone dust. As per AHP approach the ranking order of the selected compositions is: 80% Epoxy + 20 % wt. KSD > 70% Epoxy + 3 0 % wt. KSD > 60% Epoxy + 40 % wt. KSD > 90% Epoxy + 10 % wt. KSD respectively.