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Evaluating the Performance of Class-F Fly Ash Reinforced PVC Foam Composites

Parisa Khoshnoud Murtatha M. Jamel Subhashini Gunashekar Nidal Abu-Zahra

In this studyclass-F fly ash is incorporated into PVC foam at different loadings using a single screw extruder and the properties of the composite are characterized. The tensile strength of the composites increased modestly howeverthe elastic and flexural moduli increased significantly while the elongation at UTS decreased upon increasing the fly ash content in the composites. DSC and DMA results showed that incorporating fly ash into PVC foam does not significantly impact the glass transition temperature. TGA results showed that the primary degradation temperature decreases slightlywhile the secondary degradation temperature of fly ash filled composites was found to improve significantly indicating good interaction at the filler-matrix interface. The microstructural properties determined by SEM confirm that fly ash particles were mechanically interlocked in the PVC matrix with good interfacial interaction with the matrix. Particle agglomeration and debonding were observed in samples containing higher amounts of fly ash.