DEVELOPMENT AND CHARACTERIZATION OF SISAL FIBER AND WOOD DUST REINFORCED POLYMERIC COMPOSITES.

Mechanical properties of composite board made from waste paper, wood dust, and sisal fibers with various weight proportions were investigated in this work. The composite board was produced by hand lay-up technique with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) binder. The result shows that the bending strength ranged between 3.5 N/mm2 and 7.5 N/mm2; water absorption values between 6.65% and 10.5%; as well as density between 280 kg/mm3 and 360 kg/mm3. A better combination of results has been found for sisal fiber (35%), wood dust (30%), PVA (10%) and waste paper (25%). The obtained result is compared with those of the conventional ceiling board results and it is observed that these composite materials can be used for internal low-cost construction work for separation, and acoustic & thermal insulation purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]