Evaluation of Properties of Composite Panels Fabricated from Waste Newspaper and Wood Dust for Structural Application

In this work, dry forms of waste newspaper pulp, untreated wood dust and treated wood dust were used at varying weight proportions to fabricate composite panels which thenafter served as test samples. With increase in the content of either the untreated wood dust or the treated wood dust in the developed panels, the results showed increase in the mean values of bulk density, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, flexural strength but decrease in the mean values of specific heat capacity and percentage water absorption. Also, at p < 0.05, significant differences were revealed in the mean values of bulk density and specific heat capacity between the results obtained for samples with untreated wood dust content and those associated with samples containing the treated wood dust. Again, samples containing the untreated wood dust were found to be better thermal insulators but with lower flexural strength than those of same proportions of the treated wood dust component. From application viewpoint, the findings in this work indicated that the fabricated samples could compete favorably with conventional materials commonly used for thermal insulation in buildings. It is, therefore, obvious that recycling waste newspaper and wood dust into such panels can help to reduce the adverse effect of the waste materials on environment also improve economy by providing building sector with low-cost and environmentally-friendly insulation materials suitable for internal building design.