Potential of natural rubber latex in cement mortar for thermal insulating material in buildings

The improvement of cement mortar’s thermal and mechanical properties has been greatly impacted by the addition of polymeric materials. However, polymers added to mortar shouldn’t impair either its mechanical or thermal conductivity properties. The main idea of this project is to insulate buildings by reinforcing their constituent mix with natural rubber latex (NRL) to reduce thermal conductance from excessive solar radiation which causes discomfort to building occupants. Consequently, this study presents experimental findings on the influence of natural rubber latex (NRL) on the properties of NRL-modified mortar. Five varying percentages of NRL (0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%, 2.0% and 2.5%) were added into the mortar. Properties such as thermal conductivity, water absorption capacity, compressive and flexural strengths were evaluated. In addition, scanning electron microscopy was employed for the microstructural investigation. The experimental findings demonstrated that adding 2.5% NRL to mortar increased its thermal conductivity of mortar significantly thus enhancing its insulative properties. Even though adding NRL to mortar decreased the compressive and flexural strengths of some mixes, this wasn’t too substantial nor substandard. The tests that were executed demonstrate that the NRL has a huge potential to insulate cement mortar

Areal surface texture and tool wear analysis from machining during powder bed fusion

International audienc

Experimental Analysis of Mechanical and Thermal Characteristics of Luffa/Epoxy Polymer Composite under the Influence of Nanosilica

In the current work, the experimentations have been accomplished to assess the impact of diffusing nanosilica particles in epoxy matrix on the mechanical and thermal performance of the luffa fibre reinforced epoxy composite material. The matrix and fibre composition are fixed as 80 : 20 throughout the study, and the nanosilica is disbanded in diversified volume fractions of 0%, 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%, 2.0%, and 2.5%, respectively, while preparing luffa/epoxy/nanosilica (LES) composite samples. The mechanical characteristics, such as tensile, flexural, and impact behaviour of the composite, and the thermal properties, namely, thermal stability and thermal conductivity, are examined for the LES samples. The experiments are accomplished as per the ASTM standards. The results revealed that the assimilation of nanosilica particles in epoxy has improved the mechanical and thermal characteristics of the composite significantly. The tensile, flexural, and impact strength of the composite have been amended by 157.58%, 66.9%, and 16.5% with 1.5% addition of nanosilica in epoxy. Similarly, thermal conductivity of the composite is improved by 47.53% with the dispersion of 2.5% nanosilica in epoxy matrix. In addition, the thermal stability of the LES composite samples is substantially improved while disbanding nanosilica in epoxy matrix. However, the better results are reported for the LES composites containing 1.5% nanosilica content, compared to the next higher volume fractions of nanosilica content in epoxy matrix