International Journal of MechanicalJOURNAL OF MECHANICAL 0976 INTERNATIONAL Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 6340(Print), ISSN 0976 6359(Online)

e) Volume 3, Issue 1, January- April (2012), IAEME

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ISSN 0976 6340 (Print) ISSN 0976 6359 (Online) Volume 3, Issue 1, January- April (2012), pp. 267-276 IAEME: www.iaeme.com/ijmet.html Journal Impact Factor (2011): 1.2083 (Calculated by GISI) www.jifactor.com

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MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF EPOXY RESIN BASED POLYMER CONCRETE

Anurag bajpai1,Sandeep Agarwal3 and Suruchi2 1 Department of Chemical Engineering 3 Department of Mechanical Engineering 2 Department of Chemistry,(corresponding author) E mail -sur_pranika@yahoo.co.in Hindustan College of Science & Technology, Farah,Mathura,281122,India ABSTRACT In this study, epoxy, the most common type of polymer used by civil engineers is used to produce polymer resin. To produce polymer concrete, furan resin, sulfuric acid or orthophosphoric acid as hardener and catalyst and Tri-chloro toluene as curing agent are mixed with the filler or aggregates. The resin acts as a binder for the aggregate particles and the strength of polymer concrete depends on the bond between aggregates and resin. Polymer Concrete (PC) composites posses a unique combination of properties and better to cement concrete in various ways. The effect of resin content, aggregates size were calculated and its effect were determined on the load bearing capacity and compressive strength of the polymer concrete in different composition. It was found that the optimum polymer content varied from 12% to 13%. Samples were than tested for compression strength and load bearing capacity on universal testing machine. Key words-Polymer Concrete, furfuryl alcohol, trichloro toluene, Load bearing capacity, Compressive Strength 1. INTRODUCTION In the modern building materials and construction industry the role of polymer is increasing day by day. The composites using polymer can be: polymer modied concrete (PMC), when the polymer is used near cement, polymer impregnated concrete (PIC),
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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 6340(Print), ISSN 0976 6359(Online) Volume 3, Issue 1, January- April (2012), IAEME

when the cement concrete is treated by soaking and polymerization, and polymer concrete (PC), when the binder is a polymer that replaces the cement paste [1], [2],[8]. Polymer concrete also requires less curing and possesses better bonding properties. Polymer concrete represents a new generation of efficient and chemical resistance materials in which mineral filler and aggregates reach 90-95% by weight. The content of polymer binder in these comparatively new materials is only 5-10% of the total weight of the polymer concrete. In spite of such a comparatively low consumption of polymer binder per unit weight, polymer concrete possess high density,strength,chemical resistance and many more desirable properties. The appropriate selection of binder, filler and aggregates helps to produce polymer concretes with high dielectric characteristics or possess good electric conductivity, vacuum tightness or damping characteristics. Composition of special polymer concretes with excellent properties of protection from various kinds of radiation have been developed. Polymer binder can be a thermoplastic, but more frequently a thermosetting polymer. The polymers most frequently used are based on four types of monomers or prepolymer system: methyl methacrylate, polyester prepolymer styrene, epoxy prepolymer hardener and furfuryl alcohol. Among the disadvantages of polymer concrete are the cost and the technology for preparation, which is different than that used for conventional concrete. Resin or polymer concrete possesses higher strength, higher ductility than conventional concrete. While their mechanical behavior is mostly well known, Attempts have been made to overcome the disadvantages of polymer concrete by modifying polycarboxylic acid using copolymers of acrylic acid [3] and adding polyvinyl phosphoric acid) [4] or by incorporating various fillers into the zinc-containing powder using aluminum compounds [5], silicon dioxide [6], magnesium oxide [7], etc. Polymer concrete is similar to ordinary cement concrete because it contains fine and coarse aggregates, but the hydraulic binder is totally substituted with a polymer material. The aggregates are bounded together by the polymer matrix. The performances of polymeric concrete depend on the polymer properties, type of filler and aggregates, reinforcing fiber type, curing temperature, components dosage.etc.[8,9],[10]. Gorniniski et al. presented an assessment of the chemical resistance of eight different compositions of a polymeric mortars[10]. Adnan et al. reported the effects of environmental factors on the addition and durability characters of epoxy bonded concrete prisms[11]. The objective of this work was to prepare polymer concrete by optimizing the quantity of resin and the curing agent (TCT) concentration of epoxy resin in preparing epoxy resin based polymer concrete and to study the effect on some mechanical properties by varying the composition. 2. MATERIALS AND METHOD In the present work polymer concrete was prepared by two ways-first by self polymerization and then by using epoxy resin. The preparation of polymer has been carried out in three stages: Preparation of graded sand, preparation of epoxy resin, preparation of polymer concrete. Split type mould of 2cm dia. And 1length was used. 2.1. Preparation of graded sand
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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 6340(Print), ISSN 0976 6359(Online) Volume 3, Issue 1, January- April (2012), IAEME

For removing the dust particles, required quantity of sand was washed out and this process was continued until clean sand was obtained. Then it was dried to remove moisture. Moisture free sand was collected to perform sieve analysis. Sieves used for grading sand was 600m,300m,150m and 100m. After sieve analysis, sand was collected in different boxes according to its size. Table 1 Sieve size -2.38+1.18mm -1.18+600m -600+300m -300+150m -150+100m 2.2. Composition-I 15gm 20gm 25gm 10gm 10gm Composition-II 0 gm 15gm 20gm 20gm 25gm Composition-III 0gm 20gm 30gm 15gm 15gm

Preparation of epoxy resin

For the preparation of polymer concrete of epoxy resin furfuryl alcohol, orthophosphoric acid, aniline hydrochloride and trichlorotoulene was used. All the chemicals used was of reagent grade. To prepare epoxy resin,45ml of furfuryl alcohol,1ml orthophosphoric acid and 5ml water was taken in a round bottom flask, here phosphoric acid was used as a catalyst. The reaction was carried out on a heating mental at continuous rate with regular stirring. When the temperature reached between 95-1000C a sudden evolution of heat was observed, which was controlled by cooling the reactants immediately, which results in the formation of epoxy resin. The pH of the resin was controlled in between 5-6 by the addition of NaOH. 2.3. Preparation of polymer concrete

Samples of polymer concrete was prepared by two methods (a)Direct preparation of sample by using self polymerization process-Here 10gm of furfural alcohol,5 gm of water and 5% trichloro toluene by weight of furfuryl alcohol was taken and stirred well. Then sand was taken in required amount and mixed well in 5gm aniline hydrochloride. After proper mixing, the reaction mixture was introducing this mixture. After mixing, the mixture was poured into a split and opened after 6-7 hours to take out the hardened polymer concrete. (b)Preparation of the sample by epoxy Resin-In this technique, the sand was taken in desired composition and mixed well with 5gm aniline hydrochloride. After mixing it was mixed well in the required quantity of resin and curing agent trichlorotoluene.After the mixing, mixture was cast into split and opened after 6-7 h. Mechanical Characterization-The mechanical properties of polymer concrete were studied by bearing capacity and compression strength. Compression specimens size were 2 cm diameter of 10cm length cylinder. For this purpose split type mould of same size

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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 6340(Print), ISSN 0976 6359(Online) Volume 3, Issue 1, January- April (2012), IAEME

was used. using crosshead speed of 0.08mm s-1.The machine used was a Universal Testing Machine(UTM). 3. RESULT AND DISCUSSION Load capacity and compressive strength of the polymer concrete was calculated by using different quantity of size of aggregate and different curing agent. 3.1. Effect of quantity of resin on polymer concrete To study the effect of resin on the load bearing capacity and compressive strength of the resin different samples of polymer concrete was used where amount of resin has been varied from 8,10,12 to 14gm per sample. The amount of curing agent has been fixed. The effects of resin on load bearing capacity and compressive strength with composition is given in table- 2.1,2.2 and 2.3 (fig-1.1 and 1.2) Table 2.1 The effects of resin on load bearing capacity and compressive strength with composition-I TCT(by wt. of resin) 5% 5% 5% 5%

S.No. 1 2 3 4

Resin(gm) 8gm 10gm 12gm 14gm

Aniline hydrochloride 5gm 5gm 5gm 5gm

load capacity(kg) 99.99 109.08 112.11 114.38

compressive strength(kg/cm2) 31.84 34.73 35.7 36.42

From fig 1.1 it can be deduced that the load bearing capacity at min. amount of resin was 99.9kg, which increases to 14.38 kg when maximum amount of resin is used in the polymer concrete. The variation of compressive strength with the resin percentage is shown in fig1 .2 which varies from 31.84-36.42kg/cm2.

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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 6340(Print), ISSN 0976 6359(Online) Volume 3, Issue 1, January- April (2012), IAEME

Table 2.2: The effects of resin on load bearing capacity and compressive strength with composition-II TCT(by wt. of resin) 5% 5% 5% 5% Aniline Resin(gm) hydrochloride 8gm 5gm 10gm 5gm 12gm 5gm 14gm 5gm load capacity(kg) 87.87 96.96 99.94 102.36 compressive strength(kg/cm2) 27.98 30.87 31.84 32.59

S.No. 1 2 3 4

3.2 Effect of curing agent To study the effect of curing agent on the load bearing capacity and compressive strength of polymer concrete, the amount of has been kept at 10gm and promoter at 5gm,where curing agent i.e.tri chlorotoluene has been varied from 3,4,5 and 6%.Both of these properties shows the increase in trend on increase in the amount of curing agent.(fig 1.1 and 1.2)but it was concluded from the figures that the load bearing capacity and compressive strength of polymer concrete up to 5% TCT was large and after that increase in load bearing capacity and compressive strength was not significant, hence 5% concentration of the curing agent is the optimum amount. Table 2.3: The effects of resin on load bearing capacity and compressive strength with composition-III TCT(by wt. of resin) 5% 5% 5% 5%

S.No. 1 2 3 4

Aniline Resin(gm) hydrochloride 8gm 5gm 10gm 5gm 12gm 5gm 14gm 5gm
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load capacity(kg) 93.02 103.93 106.05 107.95

compressive strength(kg/cm2) 29.91 32.86 33.75 34.37

International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 6340(Print), ISSN 0976 6359(Online) Volume 3, Issue 1, January- April (2012), IAEME

3.3. Effect of average particle size To study the effect of average particle size on the load bearing capacity and compressive strength, two methods have been adopted-in the first case, average particles size was used on the basis of mass and in another case it was used on the basis of volume surface mean diameter. To observe the effect of particle size, amount of curing agent was kept at 5%.Table 3.1.3.2 and 3.3 gives the effect of average particle size on mass basis and table -4 gives the effect of particle size on volume mean diameter basis, using the formula Dwi= Xi Dpi Where Xi=Mass fraction of ith component Dpi=average particle size of ith component Table-3.1: Mass fraction of different aggregates for different compositions-I S.No. Size of particle Mass Mass Fraction (mm) (gm) (x) 1 1180 15 15/80 2 600 20 20/80 3 300 25 25/80 4 150 20 20/80 Average Particle Size DwI=496.25um Table 3.2: Mass fraction of different aggregates for compositions II S.No. 1 2 3 4 Size of particle (mm) 600 300 150 100 Average Particle Size DwII=256.25um Mass (gm) 15 20 20 25 Mass Fraction (x) 15/80 20/80 20/80 25/80

From figure- 2 it can be seen that when the average particle was 256.25um, the load bearing capacity was 96.96kg and then increases to 103.02um and to 109.08kg at 496.25um.

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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 6340(Print), ISSN 0976 6359(Online) Volume 3, Issue 1, January- April (2012), IAEME

Table-3.3: Mass fraction of different aggregates for compositions-III S.No. 1 2 3 4 Size of particle Mass (mm) (gm) 600 20 300 30 150 15 100 15 Average Particle DwII=256.25um Mass Fraction (x) 20/80 30/80 15/80 15/80 Size

The effect of average particle size on the load bearing capacity and compressive strength of polymer concrete is shown in Table 4 Table 4 Effect of average particle size on polymer concrete Resi n (gm) 10 10 10 Load capacity (kg) 109.08 96.96 103.02

S.No.

1 2 3

TCT (by wt. resin) 5% 5% 5%

Average diameter of (um) 496.25 256.25 309.37

Compressive Strength(kg/cm2 ) 34.37 30.87 32.86

The effect of volume surface mean diameter on polymer concrete was given in fig.3.1

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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 6340(Print), ISSN 0976 6359(Online) Volume 3, Issue 1, January- April (2012), IAEME

In all cases it can be seen that the load bearing capacity and compressive strength of polymer concrete increased with average particle size for the range of aggregates used for the different composition already stated. Selection of Promoter in case of Epoxy Resin-There is two main promoters which have been used in polymer concrete preparation-Aniline hydrochloride and Zinc chloride. To select appropriate promoter for the preparation of epoxy resin based polymer concrete and that prepared by direct polymerization using epoxy alcohol the experiments have been conducted taking curing agent TCT at 5% and using different composition of the promoter. First, the polymer concrete was prepared by self polymerization with varying TCT concentration, then it was prepared by epoxy resin with the same TCT concentration. The properties have been given in table-5.1 and 5.2.

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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 6340(Print), ISSN 0976 6359(Online) Volume 3, Issue 1, January- April (2012), IAEME

Table 5.1: Effect of self polymerization process on the properties of polymer Concrete S.No. 1 2 3 4 TCT(by wt. of Resin) EA 3% 4% 5% 6% 10 10 10 10 Aniline Load Compressive Hydrochloride Capacity(kg) Strength(kg/cm) 5 54.09 17.22 5 60.6 19.29 5 69.67 22.19 5 72.45 23.15

Table 5.2: Effect of Resin on the properties of polymer Concrete TCT(by wt. of S.No. Resin) Aniline Load Hydrochloride(ml) Capacity(kg) 1 3% 5 80.6 2 4% 5 92.4 3 5% 5 109.08 4 6% 5 112.4

Compressive Strength(kg/cm) 25.66 29.71 34.73 35.79

From the Table 5.1 and 5.2 it can be seen that when 10gm of resin was used with 5% TCT, better load bearing capacity and compressive strength was obtained by using same quantity of resin. Epoxy Alcohol can be used for direct polymerization when there is shortage of time and the load bearing capacity and compressive strength are not desirable in those higher ranges. The conclusion of the results is given below: In case of epoxy resin based polymer concrete 12-13% by weight of the quantity of resin is the optimal value to achieve the maximum strength. The optimal amount for curing agent is 5% for better load bearing capacity and compressive strength. The compressive strength and load bearing capacity increases with average particle of the aggregates. The polymer concrete prepared by resin as more compressive strength and load bearing capacity then the polymer concrete prepared by direct self polymerization, thus self polymerization can be used, where lower range of compressive strength is required.

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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 6340(Print), ISSN 0976 6359(Online) Volume 3, Issue 1, January- April (2012), IAEME

REFERENCES [1] Chen CH, Huang R, Wu JK, Yang CC. 2006, Waste E-glass particles used in cementations mixtures. Cem Concr Res;Vol 36,Issue3, pp44956. [2] Fowler D.W., 1999, Polymers in concrete: a vision for the 21st century. Cem. Concr. Comp., Vol 21, pp 449452 . [3] Jurecic A., 1971 Water soluble acrylic acid copolymers for dental cement. German Patent,2, 110,pp 665 . [4] J. Ellis and A.D. Wilson,1991, The glass polyphosphonate cement: A novel glassionomer cement based on poly(vinyl phosphonic acid), Polym. Int. 24,pp 224. [5] R.K. Bansal, U.S. Tewari, P. Sing and D.V.S. Murthy,1995 ,Influence of crylolite on the properties of polycarboxylate cement,J. Prosth. Dent. Vol 73 ,Issue2, pp210. [6] E.Sapler, 1989,Polymer Resin-Their Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, pp 399-37. [7] G. Willems, J.P. Celis, P. Lambrechts, M. Braem and G. Vanherle, 1993, classification of dental composites according to their morphological and mechanical characteristics. J. Biomed. Mater. Res.Vol27, pp747. [8]Moetaz M. El-Hawary,Abdullateef M.Alkhaleefi and Hisham I.Abdel-Fattah, (2005)j.of Chinese Ins.of engineers,28(1),pp155-159. [9] Reis J.M.L.,200), Fracture and exural characterization of natural berreinforced polymer concrete, Constr. Build. Mater., Vol18, pp523528. [10] Gorninsi JP, Dal Molin DC and Kazmierczak CS, 2007, Strength degradation of polymer concrete in acidic environments. Cement & Concrete Composites. Vol 29 Issue 2 , pp637-645. [11] Adnan C, Turgay C and Ahmet EB ,2009 Effects of environmental factors on the adhesion and durability characteristics of epoxy bonded concrete prisms. Construction & Building Materials. Vol23,Issue 2, pp 758.

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