Improvement of fire retardant properties of natural fiber used in noise adsorbtion panel by synthetic additives

Abstract

Fire safety has become an issue in our country. We continue to use flammable products like plastics and wooden furniture without knowing the actual risk. Thus, fire resistant materials are widely implemented, but still, it is less implemented on natural fiber based composites. The objectives of this study are to investigate the fire retardancy of coconut coir, rice husk and sawdust panels which are incorporated with Magnesium Hydroxide and Zinc borate as additives and to determine the Noise Reduction Coefficient (NRC) as well. The natural fibers and additives are mixed and cured for one week, with Polyester resin and Hardening catalyst as binders. Fire retardancy of the panels are tested according to American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) Horizontal (D 635), Vertical Burning (D 3801), and Limited Oxygen Index (LOI) (D 2863) tests. Noise Effect System Chamber (NESC) is used to study the acoustical effects based on the NRC. Principle of fire retardants and mechanism of polymer combustion is shown in this study as well. The study revealed that the sawdust panel with both additives have the highest fire retardancy compared to the combinations of the other two natural fiber composites. The horizontal burning rate is 15.92 mm/min. Vertical burning test results are classified as NC, which is non classified and the specimen burned completely. LOI test shows that all natural fiber panel with Magnesium Hydroxide and Zinc borate has the best fire reatrdancy, which is 26%. The NESC acoustical test showed that the sawdust panel has the highest Noise Reduction Coefficient on high frequency and low intensity noises because of the smaller particle of sawdust.