Author(s)

Kayode E. Oluwabunmi, Lee M. Smith, Sheldon Q. Shi^*

Department of Mechanical and Energy Engineering, University of North Texas, Denton, TX, USA.

This study was done with the aim of assessing the feasibility of mechanically recycled glass fiber particleboards made from (loblolly pine and longleaf pine) wood particles with epoxy as binder. The modulus of rupture (MOR) and modulus of elasticity (MOE) were evaluated as indicators of mechanical performance. The water absorption rate and thickness swelling rate were also analyzed to investigate the physical performance of the board. An increase of over 80% in MOE values was obtained for the boards with 10 wt% glass fiber inclusion. For the MOR values, there was an increase of over 84.4% in both densities and glass fiber inclusions of all the board densities. However, there was a decrease in MOE when 30 wt% glass fibers were incorporated into boards with density of 500 kg/m³ and 700 kg/m³. A r-squared value of 0.869 supported the obtained result that the correlation between water absorption rate and thickness swelling rate was a function of the density of the composites.

Particleboard, Recycled Glass Fibers, Water Absorption, Thickness Swelling

Oluwabunmi, K. , Smith, L. and Shi, S. (2017) Wood Particle-Recycled Glass Fiber Hybrid Composites. Open Journal of Composite Materials, 7, 265-276. doi: 10.4236/ojcm.2017.75018.