Manufacturing engineered wood panels from rice husk flake reinforced with glass and carbon fibers using epoxy adhesive

Rice husk flake (RHF) engineered wood panels were manufactured from unmodified rice husk flake in its original form and epoxy adhesive. One of the main objectives for using the original form of RHF was to minimize the manufacturing cost and processing time for treating the flake. Two types of short randomized reinforcements namely carbon fiber (CF) and glass fiber (GF) were employed to enhance the mechanical properties. The optimal compression pressure for the manufacturing process was 120 kgf/cm2. The short randomized CF and GF reinforcements were employed and investigated. An outstanding enhancement in mechanical performances was observed. At the given short fiber content, the CF showed superiority as reinforcement to the GF. The adhesive exhaustion was evidenced when the reinforcement loading exceed 40 wt%. In the combined CF/GF short fibers at constant 40 wt% loading, the mechanical performance was reduced by increasing the GF portion.