Prediction and Optimization of Mechanical Properties of Polypropylene/Waste Tire Powder Blends using a Hybrid Artificial Neural Network-Genetic Algorithm (GA-ANN)

Abstract

Blends of Polypropylene (PP) and waste ground rubber tire powder are studied with respect to the effect of ethylene—propylene—diene monomer (EPDM) and polypropylene grafted maleic anhydride (PP-g-MA) compatibilizer content by using the Design of Experiments methodology, whereby the effect of the four polymers content on the final mechanical properties are predicted. Uniform design method is especially adopted for its advantages. Optimization is done using hybrid Artificial Neural Network-Genetic Algorithm technique. A rubber formulary with respect to the four ingredients are optimized having maximum tensile strength and then compared with a blend predicted to have maximum elongation at break. It is concluded that the blends show fairly good properties provided that it has a relatively higher concentration of PP-g-MA and EPDM content. SEM investigations also corroborates with the observed mechanical properties. A quantitative relationship is then shown between the material concentration and the mechanical properties as a set of contour plots, which are then tested and confirmed experimentally to conform to the optimum blend ratio.

Study on Dielectric, Mechanical and Thermal Properties of Polypropylene (PP) Composites with Ground Tyre Rubber (GTR)

“…4 MPa, its tensile-stress 22.4 MPa, its elongation at break 41.7% and its toughness 5.8 J. Its dielectric properties at 50Hz, were similar to other composites tested; its conductivity was 5.59•10 -12 S/cm, its dielectric constant 2.4047 and its tan d value 0.00304.…”

“…The important problem of accumulation of old used tyres (Ground Tyre Rubber -GTR) [1][2][3] has driven the efforts of the international scientific community to seek solutions for their recovery and reuse 4 . Many plastic materials include elastomers to improve their toughness.…”

Modelling of tribological responses of composites using integrated ANN-GA technique

“…Artificial Neural Network (ANN) is a computational tool employed for developing mathematical models and resembles the functioning of human brain. 68,69 The development of ANN is inspired by human nervous system where mutually interconnected neurons share information among each other. ANNs are applied for solving problems involving pattern recognition, data classification and prediction.…”

Use of ground EPDM wastes in EPDM-based rubber compounds

“…There are numerous studies about using GTR and ground EPDM wastes in thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) formulations. 18–26 However, using only ground EPDM wastes in both EPDM-based TPEs and new EPDM rubber compound formulations are more convenient reutilization techniques compared to GTR utilization in EPDM-based formulations. Various modifiers have been used to compatibilize rubber/polyolefin blends with and without reclaimed GTR.…”