CICE 2010 - The 5th International Conference on FRP Composites in Civil Engineering September 27-29, 2010, Beijing, China

Experimental Design on Multi Layers of LVL Fiber Reinforced Wood Composite Using Bagasse as Core Structure
Meekum U. (umsut@g.sut.ac.th) School of Polymer Engineering, Suranaree University of Technology, Nakorn Ratchasima, Thailand

ABSTRACT The multi layers of laminated veneer lumber(LVL) fiber reinforced wood composite were constructed. It was comprised of peeled rubber and eucalyptus woods sheet obtained from commercial forest. Epoxy and vinyl ester cured bagasse were used as core and the fiber glass woven as reinforcement. Those constituents were alternately laid and bonded with epoxy and vinyl ester resins and compression molded. The 2k experimental design method was applied to study the effect of those parameters on the mechanical properties by mean of flexural properties It was found that, within the statistical result, there is no significant effect of those parameters on the flexural properties of the LVL. It would be contributed from the less brittle bagasse core. Then, the over all strength would not be enhanced and no contribution from the other strong constituents. KEY WORDS

1 INTRODUCTION
As global worming is concerned, wood is one of the precious natural resources. It is not only the most effective CO2 scavenger but also the most important raw materials for many of industries such as building construction. There are several engineering materials to substitute this resource but they are still incompletely satisfactory, especially in the sense of artistically. There are several common ways to manipulate the materials to substitute the natural wood including wood polymer composite (WPC) and engineered wood. The later is normally called man made wood. They are usually derived from pieces of fast grow wood and manufactured into stronger ones by mean of engineering composite methods. The examples of engineered wood are plywood, oriented stand wood(OSW), glulam, laminated veneer lumber (LVL), etc. The LVL is produced by bonding thick/thin wood veneer together into a larger billet. The LVL billet then sawn into desired dimension. The strength of the billet can increased by using fiber reinforced materials such as fiber glass and carbon fiber. The maximum loading of the reinforced wood also is depended on the adhesive used. Urea and phenol formaldehyde are commonly and commercially used. Colak and co-worker reported that flexural strength of LVL obtained from spruce veneers using phenol formaldehyde is prox. 98.4 MPa [1]. The strength of beech and alder veneer was 100 to 79 MPa using melamine urea formaldehyde [2]. There is document published on glass fiber and carbon fiber reinforced timber beam. It was found that carbon had shown more significant improve in flexural strength than glass fiber [3]. Thermoplastic adhesives such as poly(vinyl acetate)

(PVAc) is also the most conventional one. This glue is less water resistance. In this work, the LVL derived from the multi layers core sandwich-like structure were investigated. The bagasse fiber from sugar cane factory was used as cores. Epoxy and vinyl ester resins are used as adhesives. Rubber and eucalyptus peeled sheet were used and fiber glass woven was exploited as reinforced materials. The results of parameters that effect to the strength of the LVL beam were analyzed by design of experiment(DOE) method.

2 EXPERIMENTAL PROCEDURE
2.1 Materials The main materials used in this study can be classified into 4 categories; (i) the wood veneers, (ii) the fiber reinforced materials, (iii) bagasse fiber and (vi) adhesives. Wood veneers; rubber and eucalyptus, were peeled at thickness of approx. 2.5 mm. The young teak veneer, approx. 15 yrs, was sliced at the thickness of 0.5 mm. The moisture of woods was controlled at around 6-14% by drying in oven at 105. The woven E-glass with the areal density of 821 g/m2 was employed. The bagasse fiber was prepared by soaking in 0.5%(w/v) NaOH solution over night, autoclaving for 4 hours and crushed in non-intermeshing twin screw extruder. The fiber that passed thru the twin screw 2 times was classified as long fiber. The fiber thru the screw 4 times resulted in shorted L/D ratio and was called as short fiber. The room temperature amine cure epoxy system and vinyl ester resin were used. The bisphenol A epoxy was formulated in house. Vinyl ester resin was purchased

L. Ye et al. (eds.), Advances in FRP Composites in Civil Engineering Tsinghua University Press, Beijing and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2011

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from Thai Mitsui Co. Ltd. All chemical for adhesives were commercial grade and used as received. The bagasse core was prepared by thoroughly mixing the fiber with the given adhesive using mechanical mixer. The sticky pulp was then smoothly spread in the rectangular compression mold and pressed at 10 psi and 120 for 30 mins. 2502502 mm sheet was obtained and then cut into required dimension. 2.2 Multi Layers LVL Core Sandwich Preparation Ten layers of peeled wood sheets, bagasse cores and glass woven were gathered for manufacturing the LVL composite specimen. The teak veneers were laminated on both faces of the sample. The layers were alternately stacked and bonded using the assigned adhesive. It was cured at 120 and 5 psi for 45 mins. The LVL sandwich composite with dimension of approx. 12012050 was obtained. The specimen was machine saw cut into the required test sample, paper sand polished and post cured at 70 for 8 hours. 2.3 Design of Experiment There are 3 parameters of the 2K DOE to verify their effect to flexural properties. There are adhesive type(A), peeled wood type(B) and L/D ratio of bagasse fiber(C) corresponding to rubber wood, epoxy adhesive and short bagasse fiber(Low L/D ratio), respectively. For each high and low level parameter was spit into 2 sub levels as shown in table 1. The percentage is referred to fraction of 10 layers used. Therefore 1 layer is equivalent to 10%. The matrix of the DOE is summarized in table 2. The flexural properties by mean of strength, modulus and their specific figures were engaged as experimental respond.
Table 1 The DOE parameters and their level Parameters Adhesive(A) Wood(B) L/D ratio(C) (-)Low Level(%) 20 20 20 30 30 30 (+)High Level(%) 60 60 60 70 70 70

InstronTM 5569 were employed. The span length of 100 mm was resumed and displacement speed of 5.5 mm/min was electronically controlled. Six specimen were tested. The average values were reported.

3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Flexural properties of the LVL derived from the DOE are summarized in Table 3. By calculating the density of the specimen, kg/m3, and use it for determining the specific flexural values, the results are shown in table 4.
Table 3 Flexural Properties of LVL composite Test No.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Responds#1(Flexural Properties) Strength (MPa)

16.600.86 20.880.76 19.282.28 19.410.82 21.883.21 21.871.97 16.412.28 33.841.47

Modulus (MPa)
105.209.16 130.4112.96 148.1519.94 160.5119.91 167.5310.28 176.3139.14 114.242.01 224.7320.16

Toughness (kJ/m2)
31.355.43 33.176.33 28.177.41 32.4716.65 27.3710.84 27.256.14 31.3818.14 44.144.24

Table 4 Specific Flexural Properties of LVL composite Test No.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

Responds#2(Specific Flexural) Strength(MPa)

0.0170.001 0.0220.000 0.0200.003 0.0200.001 0.0230.003 0.0230.002 0.0170.002 0.0350.001

Modulus(MPa)
0.1110.009 0.1360.015 0.1530.019 0.1650.020 0.1740.011 0.1840.011 0.1190.021 0.2330.021

Toughness(kJ/m2)
0.0330.006 0.0340.007 0.0300.008 0.0330.017 0.0280.011 0.0280.006 0.0320.019 0.0450.004

Table 2 The DOE Matrix Run No. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Factors A(Adhesive) 2(-20) 3(-30) 2(-20) 3(-30) 6(+60) 7(+70) 6(+60) 7(+70) B(Woods) 2(-20) 3(-30) 6(+60) 7(+70) 3(-30) 2(-20) 7(+70) 6(+60) C(L/D Ratio) 2(-20) 6(+60) 3(-30) 7(+70) 3(-30) 6(+60) 2(-20) 7(+70)

2.4 Material Testing Flexural testing by mean of three point bending was conducted according to ASTM 790. The 50 kN load cell

Roughly observation, it is found that the 8th run, high epoxy adhesive, high rubber wood and high L/D ratio of bagasse fiber, exhibit the highest values. This preliminary indicates that rubber wood, epoxy adhesive and short fiber give rise to the superior flexural properties. In order to conclude the effect of those parameters on the flexural properties of LVL composite, the Design ExpertTM with 95% degree of confidential, p = 0.05, was employed. Table 5 and 6 summarize the ANOVA result for both normal flexural properties and the specific properties. The tables show that all of the models used to evaluate the effect of those assigned parameters are not significant, within 95% degree of confidential, p-values are greater than 0.05. These conclusions are confirmed by the normal plots and pareto chart as selectively given only for the flexural strength and the specific flexural strength in Figure 1. The rest of the plots show the similarity. As

September 2729, 2010, Beijing, China Table 5 ANOVA analysis for Flexural Properties of DOE Source Sum of Square
59.57 59.57 152.71 211.74

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df

Mean F Square value

59.57 59.57 25.36 2.35 2.35

P value

Conclusion

Respond: Flexural Strength(MPa)

Model C Residual Cor Total 1 1 6 7 0.1763 Not significant 0.1763

to the flexural properties. Except for the flexural modulus where the interaction parameter AB is shown the negative effect to the respond properties. It is meant that if high content of rubber wood(+B) is employed, the low level of epoxy adhesive(-A) must be used and vice versa.

Respond: Flexural Modulus(MPa)

Model A B AB Residual 3739.17 2399.17 581.06 758.94 6536.72 3 1 1 1 4 7 1246.39 2399.17 581.06 758.94 1634.18 0.76 1.47 0.36 0.46 0.5711 Not significant 0.2923 0.5831 0.5330

Cor Total 10275.89

Respond: Toughness(kJ/m2)
Model A B C BC Residual Cor Total 112.94 3.05 36.04 44.18 29.65 95.51 208.43 4 1 1 1 1 3 7 28.23 3.05 36.04 44.18 29.65 31.84 0.890 0.5623 Not significant 0.096 0.7772 1.13 1.39 0.3654 0.3237

0.930 0.4957

Table 6 ANOVA analysis for Specific Flexural Properties of DOE Source Sum of Square
7.23E-05 6.13E-06 6.61E-05 1.57E-04

df

Mean F P Square value value

3.61E-05 1.15 6.13E-06 0.20 6.61E-05 2.11 3.13E-05

Conclusion

Respond: Specific Flexural Strength

Model B C Residual 2 1 1 5 7 0.3874 Not significant 0.6768 0.2060

Cor Total 2.29E-04

Respond: Specific Flexural Modulus

Model A B AB Residual Cor Total 3.90E-03 2.63E-05 5.28E-04 7.41E-04 6.93E-03 0.011 3 1 1 1 4 7 1.30E-03 0.75 2.63E-03 1.52 5.28E-04 0.30 7.41E-04 0.43 1.73E-03 0.5768 Not significant 0.2856 0.6103 0.5488

Respond: Specific Toughness

Model C Residual 3.61E-05 3.61E-05 1.69E-04 1 1 6 7 3.61E-05 1.28 3.61E-05 1.28 2.81E-05 0.3003 Not significant 0.3003

Figure 1 The normal plot and pareto chart of (a) (b) flexural strength, (c) (d) specific flexural strength and (e) (f) flexural modulus of the DOE analysis, respectively

Cor Total 2.05E-04

indicated in figure that all of the effects and also their interacted ones are lined on the trend line, and below the critical t-values as shown in the pareto chart, respectively. It is obviously seen that those effects are positive affect

From the above statistically analyzed results, it can be concluded that epoxy and vinyl ester adhesives, rubber and eucalyptus woods and the L/D ratio of bagasse fiber used as core sandwich LVL composite does not any significant effect of the properties by mean of flexural bending of the LVL wood. However from the previous work studied the fiber reinforced LVL composite, it was

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indicated that rubber wood with room temperature cure epoxy adhesive exhibit the superior properties than eucalyptus wood[4]. Their strengths are much higher than the values observed in this sandwich material. This might be the fact that the bagasse cores are worst brittle and then they significantly contribute to inferior flexural properties. Adding more tougher constituent would not enhance the properties.

means showed the analyzed values are more than the critical p-value.

REFFERENCES
Colak, S. Colakoglu, G. and Aydin, I. (2007). Effect of log steaming veneer drying and aging on the mechanicalproperties of laminated veneer lumber(LVL). Building and Environment. 42: 93-98. Toksoy, D., Colakoglu, G., and Aydin, I. (2006). Technological and economic comparison of the usage beech and alder wood in plywood and laminated veneer lumber manufacturing. Building and Enviroment. 41: 872-876. Johns, K.C., and Lacroix, S. (2000). Composite reinforcement of timber in bending. Canadian J. of Civil Eng. 27:899-906. Mingmongkol, Y. (2009). Experimental design on engineered wood: Laminated veneer lumber(LVL) reinforce composites. M.S. thesis, Suranaree University of Technology, Thailand.

4 CONCLUSIONS
By using the DOE approach to evaluate the effect of adhesive, epoxy and vinyl ester, wood types, rubber and eucalyptus, and core material derived from bagasse fiber with different in L/D ratio, for preparing the multi layers core sandwich LVL composite, it was found that those parameters do not have any significant to the responded properties by mean of flexural bending. The statistical