The influence of additive content and particle size of bagasse on some properties of cement-bonded particleboard

Abstract

Agricultural residuals, such as bagasse, are the renewable resources which can be used as raw materials for making cement-bonded particleboard (CBPB). In this study, the effect of sodium silicate (Na2SiO3) as accelerator was evaluated on hydration process of cement paste. Moreover, it was analyzed modulus of rupture (MOR), internal bonding (IB) and thickness swelling (TS) of CBPB manufactured from bagasse as affected by particle size and content of additive (Na2SiO3) through using response surface methodology. It was determined that adding of bagasse meal in cement paste caused to decrease the initial and final setting time. Besides, higher amounts of additives resulted in lower values of hydration temperature peaks (Tmax) and hydration times. Based on central composite design, quadratic models were developed to correlate the preparation variables; particle size (x 1), additive content (x 2), to the responses; MOR (y1), IB (y2) and TS (y3). Analysis of variance indicated that particle size was the most significant variable for responses. The optimum preparation conditions for strength properties and TS were obtained by using particle size of >6.2 mm and additive content of 5.5 %, which resulted in MOR, IB and TS of 9, 0.25 MPa and 18 %, respectively.