The Study On The Surface Abrasion Resistance Of Wood-Plastic Composites Made Of Polyethylene (PE)/Rice Hull

Wood-Plastic Composites are a new type of composite material. Along with the sustained development of modernization construction of our country, the development and application of Wood-Plastic Composites (WPC) had been increasing rapidly in the recent years.Wood-Plastic Composites have a series of various application scopes; they are easily abraded by other objects. Now the Wood-Plastic Composites are widely used in outdoor floor and deck board, so it is of great significance to investigate the surface abrasion resistance of the Wood - Plastic Composites.This paper primarily studied the surface abrasion resistance of the Wood-Plastic Composites under the different conditions thoroughly. Firstly, we investigated the surface abrasion resistance of the original Wood-Plastic Composites. Then we researched the effect of the different abrasive cloth, outdoor exposure time, the temperature of the hot water and sinking time, soil corrosion time and artificial simulated different environment factors (for example: simulated seawater, simulated acid rain, alkaline environment) to the abrasion resistance of Wood-Plastic Composites.Based on each kind of experiment, the following conclusions were obtained:1,The Surface Abrasion Resistance of the original Wood-Plastic Composites: In the same rotation of abrasion test, the mass loss of the Wood-Plastic Composites was much larger than the laminated flooring. The main reason was that the surface layer of the laminated flooring was made of aluminum oxide faced paper. This paper greatly enhanced the wear-resisting performance, however, the surface of the Wood-Plastic Composites didn't use any anti- wear-resisting processing or material. From 100 to 10000 rotations in the test, the mass loss of Wood-Plastic Composites was around 2~12 times to that of the laminated flooring, the wearing depth of Wood-Plastic Composites was around 6~11 times to that of the laminated flooring. In order to develop the property of the Wood-Plastic Composites as plank or deck board, we should continuously improve the producing process and formula to enhance its wear resistance.2,The Surface Roughness of the original Wood-Plastic Composites: the surface of the original Wood-Plastic Composites is rough and quite different, and the parameters after abrasion test differed greatly. The surfaces became rougher after 100 to 6,000 abrasive rotations and the surface profile irregularities were denser; some lengths of the surfaces were smooth after 6000 and 10000 abrasive rotations. 3,The influence of the abrasive cloth to the Wood-Plastic Composites was more serious than to the laminated flooring. The particle numbers of the abrasive cloth were fewer, namely the abrasive cloth was rougher, the property of the surface abrasion resistance and the surface roughness were worse.4,Under the outdoor weathering, the outdoor exposure would influence the surface abrasion resistance of the Wood-Plastic Composites,but the change was irregular. From 15 days to 165 days exposed in the outdoor weathering, the mass loss and the wearing depth of WPC had no obvious decline. The results showed that the durability of the Wood-Plastic Composites was good; the surface resistance did not reduce after under the outdoor weathering for long time.5,The influence of the artificial simulated various environmental factors on the surface abrasion resistance of the Wood-Plastic Composites:Sinking in the hot water: after the abrasion test by NO.3 abrasive cloth, the temperature of 60℃or 40℃and the soak time of 3 hours to 15 hours did not affect the surface abrasion resistance of the Wood-Plastic Composites. After the abrasion test by NO.2 and NO.4 abrasive cloth, the mass loss of the Wood-Plastic Composites showed some changes after 1000 abrasive rotations.After the experiment of artificial simulated seawater,artificial simulated acid rain, alkaline environment, soil conditions, we drawed some conclusions as follow. The concentration of seawater and the test time, the humus soil could not affect the surface abrasion resistance of the Wood-Plastic Composites. Different PH of the hydrochloric acid solution, the sulfuric acid solution and the alkaline solution almost had no effect to the surface abrasion resistance of the Wood-Plastic Composites. The soak time of the alkaline solution had some influence to the surface abrasion resistance of the Wood-Plastic Composites.