Jānis Kajaks

Effect of Water on the Physicomechanical Properties of Composites Containing Secondary Polyethylene and Linen Yarn Production Waste

The effect of the amount of absorbed water on the physicomechanical indices (tensile modulus, tensile strength, and ultimate strain) of composites based on secondary polyethylene (SPE) of two trademarks and linen yarn production waste (LW), both with and without a coupling agent (diphenylmetane diisocyanate - DIC), is evaluated. It is shown that the strength properties considerably depend on the time of water sorption and on the blend composition. The tensile strength decreases with increased amount of absorbed water (with increased time of exposure to distilled water) and with increased content of LW in the composites. This can be explained by the plasticizing effect of water molecules, which is confirmed by the increase in the ultimate strain of specimens after their exposure to water. The slight increase in the strength observed for the systems modified with DIC is probably caused by cross-linking of the free diisocyanate in the system under the action of moisture. The diisocyanate intensifies the interfacial interaction and retards the water-sorption process. Therefore, the resulting strength indices of these systems are higher than those of the unmodified compositions.

Physicomechanical properties of composites from recycled polyethylene and linen yarn production wastes

The possibilities of utilizing wastes of linen thread production (chaffs, spinning and roving losses) in recycled polyolefin composites have been investigated. The wastes were mixed with recycled polyethylenes (produced from domestic and industrial film production wastes). The physicomechanical properties (tensile strength, bending and tensile moduli, and water resistance) and the fluidity (melt flow-behavior index) for systems with a different filler content are estimated. Almost all the composite materials obtained have satisfactory fluidity (melt flow-behavior index is not lower than 0.07–0.15 dg/min). For all types of the composites, a slight increase in tensile strength and a considerable increase (3–7 times) in bending and tensile moduli were observed. The water resistance of the composites decreased with an increase in the filler content. The modification of filled systems with diisocyanates (diphenylmethane diisocyanate) improved the useful properties and water resistance of all the composites investigated.

Evaluation of Deformation and Strength Characteristics of Composites Based on Low-Density Polyethylene and Linen Yarn Production Waste by the Methods of Mathematical Statistics

The possibilities of using various methods of mathematical statistics for processing and analyzing the results of deformation and strength tests on composites made from a low-density polyethylene and linen yarn production waste are evaluated. The hypothesis that the experimental strength data agree with the Gaussian distribution is examined by the Shapiro–Wilk test (W-test.) It is shown that the Gaussian distribution, both for systems unmodified and modified with diphenylmethane diisocyanate (DIC), is valid only for two parameters: the maximum tensile strength σmax and the elastic modulus Et. For the other parameters (the relative elongation εmax corresponding to σmax, the specific total work of failure Ab), and the specific work of failure to the tensile strength Amax), a non-Gaussian distribution is observed. An analysis of measurements for different specimens by the Bartlett test shows that the Et data have equal variances for both systems (with and without DIC), but for the system containing DIC, the σmax data have different variances. A two-factor ANOVA analysis reveals that DIC considerably affects the tensile strength and modulus of composites, but the influence of test conditions is a statistically significant factor only for the modulus. The coefficient of variation is considerably lower for σmax than for Et and can be used as a quantitative measure for the degree of heterogeneity of the composites investigated.