Evaluation of rubber matrix composites reinforced with recycled industrial waste.

The difficulty of biodegradation of rubber is an important motive for how to make the most of it, so the current work came to develop recipes of rubber composite materials reinforced with industrial waste, and conduct laboratory tests such as abrasion and hardness tests. Two types of industrial waste were used in the preparation of recipes (wasted fiber and crumbed rubber) from the tire recycling process in Al-Dewaniyah Tires factory and these materials were added in different load percentages (1%, 2%, 3%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, and 25%) and all these recipes were discussed with a standard recipe that used carbon black only as a reinforcement agent. The results showed the mechanical properties were improved in some of these recipes. Firstly, the abrasion test results showed imperceptible improvement in this property and then increase with increasing load percentage till 10% of wasted fiber load percent while the acceptable results were till 5% percent of crumbed rubber with value about 4.95% and 7.62% respectively compared with 7.82% for a standard recipe. After these load percent, the property deteriorated. Also, the results showed improving the hardness of recipes with increasing the load percentage for two types of waste material and the load percent 3% may be an acceptable value with 61 IRHD and 60.5 IRHD for wasted fiber and crumbed rubber respectively, was that compatible with some engineering applications. All these results may reflect the ability to use these materials as a reinforcement agent with several benefits such as economic and environmental benefits. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]