USING RICE STRAW TO REINFORCE RIGID FOAM

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Assoc. Prof. of Ag, Eng.., Fac. of Ag. , Al-Azhar Univ. Cairo, Egypt.

Abstract

At the present time, the environmental problems include all civilized societies and in Egypt, it became a huge problem. The common problem is associated with agricultural residues accumulated in the field and their disposal by wrong unsuitable ways, causing many problems to environmental balance. So, the agricultural residues disposal and how to use it in useful applications became the most important subject which takes the first place between different countries. Recently, there is a high level of interest towards agricultural residues utilization in useful ways that will help keeping healthy and friendly environment.  This research was carried out to seek the possibility of using Rice straw to reinforced rigid foam, in order to increasing the foam resistance for breaking and improved its properties. This work was carried out of Agricultural Engineering Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Al- Azhar University, Cairo Egypt.  Urethane foam was producted between and around the rice straw bundles by placing a 50-50 blend of prepolymer and activator in the bottom of the mold immediately after mixing. After about 30 min, the reinforced foam was removed form mold give beams (5 cm×   5 cm ×30 cm) for testing. Four kinds specimens were made,  unreinforced, reinforced by one rice straw bundle, reinforced by three rice straw bundles, and reinforced by five rice straw bundles. Every bundle have five rice straw stalks.
The results of this study indicate that, the minimum value of shear stress was 2.39 kPa at unreinforced (0%) and the maximum was 3.58kPa at (35%). The minimum and maximum values of compression were 2.62, 3.27 kPa at 0% and 35%, respectively. The minimum and maximum values of acoustic insulation were 15.3, 20.9 at 0% and 35%, the minimum and maximum values of acoustic insulation were 15.3, 20.9 at 0% and 35%, respectively. Every one cubic meter of the foam, costs about 300 L.E, but after the reinforcement by 7%, 21%, 35% rice straw, the costs were 279,237 and 195 L.E respectively. The Rice straw could be used for reinforced foam, and improved its properties. In Arab Lybian, all farmers used foam plats for classify the breeding area in poultry buildings.

Main Subjects


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