Sand molding casting has been widely used for a long time. But, one of its main drawbacks is that surface quality of the castings is not good enough for some applications. The purposes of this research were to investigate the effect of addition of sawdust ash of rubber wood (SARW) on molding sand properties and the surface quality of iron castings and to find an appropriate level of SARW with the appropriate properties of the iron castings. The molding sand compositions for making a sand mold consisted of the recycled molding sand, bentonite, water and SARW. The percentage levels of SARW were 0%, 0.1%, 0.2%, 0.3% and 0.4%. The different proportions of molding sand samples were investigated for the molding sand properties including permeability, compression strength and hardness. The results showed that addition of SARW had an effect on the molding sand properties. The appropriate percentage proportion of molding sand was obtained at 95.8% recycled molding sand, 0.8% bentonite, 3% water and 0.4% SARW. There were statistically significant differences of mean surface roughness and hardness values of the iron castings made from molding sand samples without SARW addition and the appropriate percentage proportion of molding sand. In addition, the average surface roughness value of the iron castings made from the sand mold with the appropriate percentage proportion of molding sand was ~40% lower than those of the iron castings made from molding sand samples without SARW addition.

A characteristic study on the phenol formaldehyde (PF) composite is carried out based on the micro level bio waste particles such as wood sawdust (WSD) and coir pith (CP). Composite is characterized by mechanical properties such as tensile, flexural and impact at different percentages of particles (0-50% by weight) to find out the optimum percentage of particle loading to get the maximum properties. The WSD/CP/PF hybrid composite is also prepared by two different methods i.e., one: one (1:1) ratio and rule of mixture. The first method (1:1) is used to find out the optimum level of hybrid particles loading to get the maximum properties. But, the second method is followed to find out the weight percentages of particles influencing the properties of resulting composite. The results show that the mechanical properties of WSD/PF are higher than CP/PF composite in the entire particle loading. The optimum particle loading to get the maximum properties is 40 wt.% in CP/PF composite, whereas for WSD/PF composite are at 30 wt.%. The hybrid composite (1:1) also gives the maximum properties at 30 wt.%. Moreover, the hybrid composite (20WSD/10CP) prepared by rule of mixture showed the highest mechanical properties compared to the other particle loading. It is identified that the WSD particles are most influencing the properties of PF composites than the CP particles. Fractographic study was performed using scanning electron microscope to examine the failure mechanism of the composite specimens.

The by-products of wood sawdust and wood fiber are considered to be waste material. It is utilized in the construction of buildings in the form of sawdust concrete or wood fiber concrete. It is used to make lightweight concrete and possesses heat transfer of a long duration. In this study, wood concrete was made at eleven different mix proportions of cement to wood waste by weight, to produce a lightweight concrete aggregate that has the density 1508-2122 kg/m3. The experimental work consists of 330 concrete specimens as 99 cubes (150 * 150 * 150) mm, 165 cylinders (150 * 300) mm, 33 prisms (50 * 100 * 200) mm, and 33 prisms (100 * 100 * 500) mm. Mechanical and thermal properties such as stiffness, workability, compressive strength, static elasticity modulus, flexural forces, splitting tensile strength and density were examined in the specimens after 28 days of 20 oC curing. Also, compressive strength was investigated at 7 and 14 days of curing at 20 oC. The basic observation of the results shows the values with the limitations of ACI and ASTM. Moreover, it is the perfect way to reduce solid wood waste and produce lightweight concrete to be used in industrial construction. It was found that with the increase in the quantity of wood waste, the strength decreased; however, in terms of workability and concrete with a higher quantity of wood waste held very well. Lightweight concrete aggregate is around 25 percent lighter in dead load than standard concrete. Given all the physical and mechanical properties, the study finds that wood concrete can be used in the construction of buildings.