Statistical analysis of flexural modulus of cenospheres-reinforced, recycled poly(ethylene terephthalate) using Taguchi method

Abstract

Statistical methods are playing an important role in the design and analysis of engineering experiments. One such method called Taguchi method is found to provide sufficient information to optimize a process with the use of minimum number of experiments. This article presents systematic application of Taguchi method for optimizing the process parameters of compression moulding process. The response under consideration is flexural modulus. The study includes the use of recycled polyethylene terephthalate reinforced with fly ash cenospheres. The use of these recycled materials is promising to reduce the cost of the engineering parts and help nature by increasing waste utilization. A model for flexural modulus is designed and verified through experiments. The outcome from analysis of variance brings out the facts that moulding pressure, moulding temperature and weight fraction of cenospheres are the three most significant parameters of flexural modulus, contributing 59.44, 21.45 and 7.75%, respectively. The optimum set values for these parameters are found to be 5 MPa, 50°C and 15%. The proposed quadratic model for flexural modulus proves to be well in agreement with the experimental results. © The Author(s) 2013.