Spray deposition of cork reinforced polyester

The objective of this research is to enable large part or high volume manufacturing processes to make consumer or industrial products from a cork reinforced polymer composite, similar to current applications of glass reinforced polyester. The low initial investment and high flexibility of the spray lay-up process make it an attractive candidate to study. A spray lay-up apparatus was successfully constructed and employed in manufacturing parts from a hybrid material composed of granulated cork, chopped glass strand, and a polyester matrix. The material was tested for tensile and flexural properties following relevant ASTM standards. The material was found to have a tensile strength of 4.4 MPa and tensile modulus of 850 MPa. The flexural strength and modulus were 9 MPa and 830 MPa, respectively. Adding a fiberglass skin to the cork hybrid significantly improved its flexural strength. Additionally, a small turbine blade prototype was created as a proof of concept. It is recommended that further work focus on optimizing the hybrid material's properties, re-designing and optimizing the apparatus used for the spray-up process, and demonstrating material viability by manufacturing a cross section of a large turbine blade.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2010

Author dc:creator

• Pope, Benjamin J

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• David R. Wallace.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/62535

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/62535