Thermo-mechanical characterization of banana particulate reinforced PVC composite as piping material

A banana particulate reinforced polyvinyl chloride (PVC) composite was developed with low cost materials having an overall light-weight and good mechanical properties. The specimen composite material was produced with the banana (stem) particulate as reinforcement using compression molding. The composition with optimum mechanical property of 42 MPa was estimated to have a long term stress value of 25 MPa corresponding to 40% loss in strength over a period of 32 years. This composition has a formulation of 8%, 72% and 20% of banana stem particulates (reinforcement), PVC (matrix) and Kankara clay (filler) respectively with corresponding water absorption of 0.79%, Young's Modulus of 1.3 GPa and a density of 1.24 g/cm3. Thermogravimetric analyses showed that constituents of reinforcement/filler in the composite increased the thermal stability of the composite by 38.6% over that of pure PVC. The composite has better creep stability at elevated temperatures than PVC. Long term TTS (time-temperature-superposition) performance prediction at 50 °C showed the composite satisfied WLF assumption with reduced stiffness to 0.65 GPa over an estimated period in excess of 100 years of usage indicating better long term performance than PVC pipe material - the stiffness could be much higher when used below 50 °C. Comparison with conventional piping materials showed the composite offered a price savings per meter length of 84% and 42% when compared with carbon steel and PVC material.