STATISTICAL DESIGN ANALYSIS FOR THE PREDICTION OF THE POLARIZABILITY (DIELECTRIC CONSTANT) OF CASSAVA CORTEX PARTICULATE REINFORCED EPOXY COMPOSITES

Abstract

The possibility of reinforcing epoxy resin with cassava cortex (CCtx) for composite production was studied. The produced composites were experimentally investigated and statistically analysed for the development of a mathematical model to predict the composites’ dielectric constant. The CCtx was carbonized at 550°C and subsequently milled to 150, 300 and 600μm. Composites were produced using the CCtx particles varying from 40 to 60wt%. The results show that smaller particles and smaller wt% have the best properties. Better enhancement of property was also obtained from the carbonized composites. The Cube and contour graphs show the estimated response surface for the composite property as a function of sample condition, wt.% and particle size. The developed model can be used for optimization of the process parameters of the dielectric constant of the developed composites. The predicted dielectric values were found to be close to the experimentally observed ones.