Considerations of mechanical and thermal properties for the production of an irrigation pipeline from post-consumer polymer materials

Abstract

It aims to show the results to develop three new formulations of polymeric materials from household waste generated, in order to determine the best material to make irrigation pipeline in Costa Rica, using commercial pipeline reference. Polymeric material was recovered polyethylene and polypropylene post-consumer, with the help of ITCR waste recovery programs. The material required for processes such as cleaning, sorting, grinding and extrusion. The samples were prepared with different proportions of the polymers used. The first specimen was LDPE; another mix was 75 % of LDPE and 25 % HDPE and a final mixture of 75 % of HDPE and 25 % of PP. These samples were analyzed for mechanical and thermal properties. 

As a main result we found that the improved formulation of the pipeline properties studied was the mixture of different post-consumer LDPE products, for a total of ten repetitions with 95 % confidence in the Kolmogorov- Smirnov test, concluding that this product exceeds elongation resistance properties in bending and optimization needed characteristics for IZOD impact strength mode. Testing differential scanning calorimetry showed no external agents in samples, and thermogravimetric analysis showed the decomposition temperature change similar to the duct and higher than the other blends.