J ournal of Mechanical Engineering and Sciences (J MES)

e-ISSN: 2231-8380; Volume 2, pp. 181-186, June 2012

FKM, Universiti Malaysia Pahang
181

EFFECT OF RICE HUSKS AS FILLER IN POLYMER MATRIX
COMPOSITES

K. Hardinnawirda and I. SitiRabiatull Aisha

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering
Universiti Malaysia Pahang
26600 Pekan, Pahang, Malaysia
Email: rabiatull@ump.edu.my

ABSTRACT

In this study, rice husks filler polyester composites were produced with rice husks (RH)
as filler and unsaturated polyester resin (UPR) as the matrix. Several percentage of filler
loadings were used (10, 15, 20 and 25 wt %) in order to gain insights into the effect of
filler content on the mechanical properties and water intake of the composites. From the
results, the tensile strength of the RH filled UPR composites found to be decrease as the
filler loading increase. However, as it increases to 25 wt %, the strength shows
moderately increase. As for the young modulus, it shows remarkable increase for 15
wt% of RH and decreasing as the RH continually increase up to 25 wt %. Water
absorption test was conducted and the results showed that the composites absorb more
water as the weight percentage of RH increased, which attributed to the ability of RH
fillers to absorb water.

Keywords: Rice husks, unsaturated polyester resin, water absorption, tensile strength.

INTRODUCTION

During the past few decades, many polymer composites have been prepared and
combined with various types of synthetic reinforcing fillers in order to improve the
mechanical properties and obtain the characteristics demanded in actual applications
(Yao et al., 2008; Tabari et al., 2011).The use of natural filler for the reinforcement of
the composites has received increasing attention both by the academic sector and the
industry. Natural filler have many significant advantages over synthetic filler and fibres
such as their light-weight, low cost, ability to reduce abrasion of machinery and also
non-toxicity. Currently, many types of natural fillers have been investigated to be used
in the industry including flax, hemp, wood, wheat, barley, and oats (Bledzki and
Gassan, 1999). They are now fast evolving as potential alternatives to inorganic or
synthetic materials for various applications as building materials and automotive
components (Nourbakhsh et al., 2010; Nourbakhsha et al., 2011). Other than that, rice
husks as fillers have advantages over mineral fillers, as they are non-abrasive, require
less energy for processing and ability to reduce the density of furnished products.
Hence, these composites have attracted much attention, and are becoming increasingly
important for the production of a wide variety of cheap light-weight environment
friendly composites.

The physical and mechanical properties of natural filler composites are largely
depending on the type of matrix, content and properties of the reinforcement fillers and
fillermatrix interaction. Better dispersion of the filler can be achieved by effective


Effect of rice husks as filler in polymer matrix composites
182

mixing of the components and a proper compounding process (Yang et al., 2007).
Dhakal et al. (2007) reported that by adding filler in the polymer material, the
mechanical properties of the composite such as the strength can be further enhanced.
However, it had also been mentioned that the strength of the composites were decreased
as the filler added increased. One of the main concerns for the use of natural fibre or
filler reinforced composite materials is their susceptibility to moisture absorption and
the effect on physical, mechanical and thermal properties (Dhakal et al., 2007). All
polymer composites absorb moisture in humid atmosphere and when immersed in
water. The effect of absorption of moisture leads to the degradation of filler matrix
interface region that creating poor stress transfer efficiencies resulting in a reduction of
mechanical properties (Yang et al., 1996). In this study, the mechanical properties and
the percentage of water absorption of the rice husk filler polyester composite had been
studied using different value of filler loading including 10,15, 20 and 25 wt%.

EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE

Preparation of Test Samples

Finely milled rice husks were collected from a local rice mill. The milled rice husks
contain many impurities like dust, small rice particles, and fine sand particles.
Therefore, it needs to be cleaned in order to get pure rice husk. After cleaning with
water, the rice husks were dried directly under the sun for 8 hours. Then it were
weighted according to the percentage needed (10, 15, 20 and 25 wt%). After that, the
unsaturated polyester resin and methyl ethyl ketone peroxide (MEPK) catalyst were
mixed in a container and stirred well for 3 to 5 minutes. The rice husks were then added
gradually and stirred to allow proper dispersion of fibre within the gel like mixture.
Before the mixtures were poured inside the mould, the mould was initially polished with
a release agent to prevent the composites from sticking to the mould upon removal.
Finally, after the mixture had been poured into the mould, it was left at room
temperature for 24 hours for fully cured and hardened.

Mechanical and Physical Testing

The test was conducted using Instron Universal Testing Machine at a fixed crosshead
speed of 2 mm/min. Test samples were prepared according to the ASTM D3039 with
dimension of 250x25x2.5mm.Physical properties such as water absorption were
investigated according to the ASTMD570. The samples were dried in the furnace at
50C for 8 hours and then cooled in desiccator. The samples of each type of composite
were soaked in distilled water at 23C for 24 hours. Then the samples were removed
from the water, patted dry and then measured again.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Tensile Test

Figure 1 shows the result of tensile test forrice husks filler UPE composites using
various filler loadings. Figure 2 shows the tensile fracture surfaces of the RH-UPR
composites using various filler loadings. The graph from Figure 1 shows that the tensile
strengths of the composites slightly decreased with increasing filler loading due to the


Hardinnawirda and SitiRabiatull Aisha / Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Sciences 2(2012) 181-186

183

poor interfacial bonding. The weak bonding between the hydrophilic filler and the
hydrophobic matrix polymer obstructs the stress propagation, and thus causes the tensile
strength to decrease when the filler loading increases. In addition, poor dispersion
causes agglomeration of the fillers, as well as decreasing the tensile properties. From the
graph, we can see that there was a moderate increased in tensile stress for the 25 wt%
filler loading. It is believed that this is due to the fillers used where it acted as a flaws at
higher filler mass fractions since there were lacks of resin that can wetted the filler,
which also resulting in an inefficient stress transferred, leading to decrease in tensile
strengths followed by modest increased with increasing filler contents. Apart from that,
an increased in the filler content also increased the micro-spaces between the filler and
the matrix, which weakened the fillermatrix interfacial adhesion. As a result, the
values of tensile strength decreased with the increasing filler content in the composite.


Figure 1.Tensile strengths of rice husks filler UPE composites at various filler loadings.





















Figure 2.Tensile fracture surfaces of the RH-UPR composites: (a) 10wt% of RH-UPR
(b) 15wt% of RH-UPR (c) 20wt% of RH-UPR (d) 25wt% of RH-UPR.
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
10 15 20 25
T
e
n
s
i
l
e

S
t
r
e
n
g
t
h

(
M
P
a
)
Rice Husks (wt%)
(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)


Effect of rice husks as filler in polymer matrix composites
184

Figure 3 shows filler cracking at various loadings condition. It can be seen that
the cracked surface became much brittle when the percentage of filler getting higher.
Furthermore, the presence of hydroxyl groups in the cellulose of rice husks is
responsible for its inherent hydrophilic nature. As a result, it became difficult to mix
hydrophilic rice husks with hydrophobic UPR. This will also lead to inefficient
composites with weak interfacial bonding. While Figure 4 shows the variation of the
Young Modulus of the composite at different filler loading. As the filler loading
increased to 15 wt%, the Young Modulus shows remarkable increased. However, as the
filler loading continually increased, the Young Modulus of the composites seems to be
decreased. Same results had been reported by (Aramide et al., 2009). In addition, the
Young modulus of the composites decreased after exceeding the threshold values,
which is 1609.55 MPa. This shows that the stiffness of the composites is contributed
predominantly by inherent stiffness of rice husks and the UPR matrix (Rozman et al.,
2003).



















Figure 3. Filler cracking: (a-b) 10wt% of RH-UPR (c-d) 20wt% of RH-UPR.


Figure 4.Young modulus of rice husks filler UPE composites at various filler loadings.

0
500
1000
1500
2000
10 15 20 25
Y
o
u
n
g

M
o
d
u
l
u
s

(
M
P
a
)
Rice Husks (wt%)
(a) (c)
(b) (d)


Hardinnawirda and SitiRabiatull Aisha / Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Sciences 2(2012) 181-186

185

Water Absorption

Figure 5 shows the percentages of the water uptake for the RH filled UPR composites at
different filler loadings. The water absorption also increased when the filler loading
increased. This is due to the presence of voids in the natural filler polymer composites.
These voids formed because of the poor adhesion between the matrix and filler which in
this case, the filler used was rice husks or also known as lignocellusoic material. When
the natural filler composites exposed to the moisture, the hydrophilic rice husks swells
and this lead to the micro-cracking of brittle thermosetting resin. As the composites
cracked, the capillarity became active. Hence, the water molecules can actively attracted
to the interface which in turn resulted in the de-bonding of filler and matrix. The high
cellulose in the rice husks contributed to more water penetration into the interface
through micro-cracks induced by swelling on fillers which also creating stresses and
finally leading to composites failure.



Figure 5. Effect of various filler loading on water absorption.

CONCLUSION

Through the current study, it can be concluded that the tensile strengths of the
composites decreased when the filler loading increased. This is due to the weak
interfacial adhesion between the filler and matrix caused by the porosity and micro
cracking. Besides, the young modulus also decreased when the filler loading increased
except for the 15 wt% whereby its young modulus increased remarkably. While for the
water absorption, it appears that, as the filler loading increased, the composites tend to
absorb more water since the rice husks is known as lignocellusoic material.

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