Using vegetable oils in obtaining of composite materials

In present work fly ash, natural clay and four different kinds of epoxidized vegetable oils (soybean oil, sunflower oil, olive oil and palm oil) were used to produce 180 kinds of composite materials. By analyzing heat conductivity of these novel materials, their use as an insulation material is investigated.In the mixture, a kind of thermal central waste product, fly ash is used, which is produced annually over than 15 million tones in Turkey. Not only the re-use of these products is a good development for environment, but also to obtain an insulation material with them is a very important attack for energy saving policy. The fly ashes which are used in the experiments are taken from Afşin-Elbistan Thermal Central. The natural clay and epoxidized oil are used in various ranges as adhesive materials. The percentage ratio of the weights of fly ash and natural clay were 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70. Four different kinds of epoxidized vegetable oils were added to the mixture in a percentage of 40, 45, and 50. The new productions were subjected to some tests to find out their detailed properties such as strain, tension, abrasion, sucking capability of water, rate of drying, thermal conductivity coefficient, mass and density.This thesis consists of six chapters. The 1st chapter includes the introduction of the subject of the thesis while the 2nd chapter includes the detailed literature survey about the subject. The 3rd chapters involve respectively, the general information about the vegetable oil and the specific information about the used materials in this thesis (epoxidized vegetable oils, fly ash and natural clay). In the 4th chapter has the knowledge about the physical model and mathematical formulation of the produced materials. In the 5th and 6th chapters the experimental work and its results are presented.From the test results, some important conclusions are made as follows:? The thermal conductivity coefficient of the mixture of the epoxidized vegetable oil, fly ash and natural clay is found quite low. Therefore, it is obvious that the use of this new mixed material will cause a great energy saving either it is used as external-wall-compo material or floor-wall-covering material.? It is observed that, the rate of fly ash and epoxidized vegetable oil should be more than the clay rate, when the thermal insulation is considered. On the other hand, the rate of clay is much more important when the water insulation and strength of the material is considered.? When the epoxidized vegetable oil and fly ash materials are used in low rates, the strain resistance value of the materials is found high and the abrasion value is low. Therefore it is suggested to be used as wall covering insulation material.? The resistance of the new materials to the freezing is tested by `water sucking method?. Their capability of to sucking water is found lower than the critic level %30 which is given by TSE norm. Hence, the author suggests using this material as roof insulation plates or outer wall compo material.Key Words: Epoxidized vegetable oils, fly ash, clay, composite material