الفهرس 
IntroductionOnly 14 pages are availabe for public view
 |  | from | 216 |  |  |
| | | from | 216 | | |
Abstract
Thesis Summary
In the last decades Natural Fiber reinforced Polymer Composite (NFRPC) has been introduced as one of the solutions to overcome the ecological and environmental problems that accompanied the widespread use of polymeric materials in every facet of life. Light weight, low cost and renewability are the key factors behind using Natural Fibers (NF) to reinforce polymers. However, the organic nature for both NF and polymers increases their flammability behavior and this in return limits their application. Flame retardants (FRs) are commonly used to enhance the flame retardancy behavior of polymeric materials, but this comes at the expense of their mechanical properties. There is not enough research done on studying the effect of adding Flame Retardants (FRs) on fibre-fabric reinforced thermosets especially natural fibres. Moreover, literature lacks a selection tool that can be used to correlate between the effect of adding flame retardants on the flammability behaviour of polymeric materials and other properties such as mechanical, thermal and physical properties.
In this respect, this research aims to introduce different selection charts that can be used to select and develop a new FR system for Jute fibre-fabric Reinforced Epoxy Composites (JFREC). The effect of this selected FR system on both flame retardancy performance, as well as mechanical properties of JEREC was studied and the obtained results were plotted on the constructed selection charts to investigate the potential improvement for using this FR system.
In order to achieve this aim, a comprehensive review on the recent research articles that studied the flame retardancy of epoxy resin, unsaturated polyester resin and their composites were covered. Moreover, a variety of flame-retardant selection charts that relate different flame retardant test results with each other and relate the flame retardancy performance with mechanical behaviour were developed based on the series of reliable data collected from the literature. These selection charts were deeply analysed and based on this analysis silica fumes and Dia-ammonium phosphates (DAP) were used as FRs for JFREC. Silica fumes were added in different weight content to epoxy resin to find the optimum wt.% that results in enhancing flame retardancy performance of epoxy resin. In the second stage, this optimum wt.% of silica fumes were further adopted for the preparation of JFREC. Additionally, both jute fabric and epoxy resin were treated with different concentrations of DAP to investigate the effect of different methodology for adding FRs to fibre fabric reinforced polymer composites, whether to coat fibre fabric reinforcement with FR or to mix FRs with thermosetting resin on both flame retardancy performance, as well as mechanical properties. The mechanical properties (in terms of Impact and flexural strength) and flame retardancy performance (in terms of UL-94 and Limiting oxygen index test) were studied for the prepared JFREC.
These topics are described in the various chapters of the thesis, as follows:
Chapter 1 introduces an overview for the recent works in the field of polymer composites with flame retardants.
Chapter 2 presents a literature review that is essentially divided into two sections: the first section briefly discusses the combustion mechanism, the flammability behaviour of polymers, laboratory fire testing and provides an overview of the flame retardancy mechanism and types of flame retardants. In the second section, articles on flame retardancy performance for epoxy resin and unsaturated polyester polymer matrices and their composites were reviewed and summarized in comprehensive master tables. These master tables include the type and content of flame-retardant additive, cone calorimetry data including time to ignition (TTI), peak heat release rate (PHRR), total heat release (THR), calculated universal flame retardancy index (FRI) values and the available data for UL-94, limiting oxygen index (LOI) and mechanical properties represented by tensile strength and flexural strength are also included.
Chapter 3 Presents a deep comparative analysis for the previous work in the literature through constructing various numbers of selection charts. This chapter summaries the main outcomes deduced from this selection charts and highlights the main points that have not been covered in the literature. Additionally, these charts were used to select and develop a new FR system for JREC.
Chapter 4 presents the main objective of this research and summarizes the work strategy that has been followed to achieve the aim of the research.
Chapter 5 provides the experimental procedures used in the present study. First, a specification and the main properties of the used materials. Further, details about the experimental procedures for the addition of FRs to epoxy and jute fabric are described. Finally, details of both composite fabrication as well as the flame retardant, mechanical and thermal characterization methods are depicted.
Chapter 6 analyses and discusses the results of flame retardancy performance, thermal and mechanical properties for the prepared composite and relates these results to literature findings.
Chapter 7 summarizes the main outcomes and conclusions of this study and presents future recommendations for subsequent studies.
Keywords: Natural fibers, Jute Fabric, Epoxy resin, Silica fumes, Fiber-Fabric polymer composite, Dia-ammonium phosphate (DAP), Flame retardants selection charts