Abstract:
Agricultural by-products have been used as reinforcement in polymers, raw materials in the feed mills and properties enhancement additives in bricks and tiles industries. This research have studied the possibility of using oil palm fruit fiber to enhance the thermal insulation property of clay. The clay used was obtained from ijapo area in Akure, Ondo state, Nigerial. The dry clay was crushed before water was added to it in a tank. It was allowed to stay undisturbed for 72 hours in order to temper it. The tempared clay was mixed by stirring mechanically to give smooth, soft and homogenious mixture that contains no hard lumps. The slurry was put into the tempering tank to settle. The settled clay was put into a plaster of paris pot in order to form lump and later sundried. The dried clay was crushed,grinded and sieved to 100 μm. Oil Palm fruit fiber was obtained by washing out palm oil from the pericarp of the palm fruit (pericarp of palm fruit can be easily removed by boiling the palm fruit to temperature around 100oC). The fiber was sundried and pulverized. Composites of clay and varying percentages of pulverized oil palm fruit fiber compositions were developed which included 2.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5 and 15% by mass of pulverised oil palm fruit fiber. The Pulverized fiber and clay were mixed thoroughly to ensure homogeniety of the composites. Samples were prepared for thermal conductivity, bulk density, apparent porosity, firing shrinkage, compressive strength, wear test and scanning electron microscopy analyses according to ASTM standard procedures. The composites were sundried, oven dried at 110℃ and fired at 900℃ to burn off the pulverized fiber particles to create pores within the clay. From the results of the tests, it was observed that the thermal insulation, apparent porosity and firing shrinkage increased, while density, compressive strength and wear resistance decreased as the composition of pulverized oil palm fruit fiber particles in the composites increased. The surface morphologies of pure clay brick and sample with 15% fiber were examined using scanning electron microscope equiped with energy dispersive spectrometer. Images obtained showed that the pulverized oil palm fruit fiber particles created pores within the clay. The pores increased with increased in volume of pulverized oil palm fruit fiber. Composite with 10% composition of oil palm fruit fiber showed from tests and evaluations, the most insulation efficiency. It also satisfied standard requirements of insulating bricks.
