Experimental Study on The Microstructure-Mechanical Property Relationship of Crumb Rubber-Polyurethane Foam Composites

Abstract

With the enormous growth of automobile industry initiating the needs of tire production all over the world, the disposal of scrap tires has become a significant environmental burden. Several research groups have investigated the development of novel products using waste tires. Nonetheless, the presence of non-degradable ingredients in tires makes the process of decomposition extremely difficult. Another issue is the need for proper surface treatment of waste rubber to enhance its interaction with polymeric compounds. This current work is aimed to remedy the difficulties related to the recycling of polymeric rubber tires. This project is developing technology to fabricate composite panels in which recycled rubber from tires is an inherent constituent. These resulting composite panels can also be used as core materials inside Sandwich Composites and can definitely be seen as a means of utilizing post-consumer waste tires. The inherent higher resilience of rubber particles is utilized to make best core materials in resisting impact damage. Not only that, this study involves an effective surface treatment methodology of as-received rubber particles using various organic functional groups. FTIR analysis will be utilized to understand the efficacy of various surface treatments. The compressive modulus and strength of crumb rubber reinforced foam are determined using ASTM standards as a function of crumb rubber content and surface treatment. Initial studies show that materials can be easily fabricated using various volume fractions of crumb rubber. The modulus and compressive strength increase with greater rubber contents.