Water Absorption and Swelling Behaviour of Wood Plastic Composites

Wood polymer composite (WPC) is an environmentally friendly and sustainable material which has been exploited in the filed such as building and construction marine, packaging, house wares, aerospace and automotive industry. In recent years, there is a rapid growth in the usage of WPC as it possesses low maintenance cost. The properties of WPC depend on the interaction between wood and polymer. WPC has characteristic water uptake and swelling properties. A knowledge of water absorption and swelling behaviour property of WPC is essential to tune the WPC for different application. Hence, in this chapter we give a brief outlook about the water absorption and swelling behaviour of wood plastic composites. The effect of processing method, fiber content, orientation, matrix type, wood content, coupling agent, crosslinking, immersion time and temperature on the water absorption and swelling of WPC is briefly described. This chapter also discuss different swelling test of wood polymer composite.