A grey relational analytical approach to orange peel filler particulates for tapped density experiments of green composite reinforcements

Abstract

Monitoring density changes during transportation of composite fillers is the principal reason for composite industries implementing the tapped density concept. Till date, very sparse literature information exists on tapped density optimisation for orange peel particles (OPPs). A unique application of grey relational analysis (GRA) in the optimisation of tapped process parameters for OPPs is contributed in this paper. Experimental results on the principal process parameters indicate G1H1I2J3 as the best experimental run, which translates to 257.956 g and 78.076 cm3 as well as 254.939 g and 72.94 cm3 for masses and volumes of the 0.425 and 0.600 mm OPPs, respectively. In addition, Taguchi method was applied to arrive at an optimal parametric setting of G2H2I1J1 for comparative purposes which translate to 257.723 g and 75.031 cm3 for mass and volume of the 0.425 OPPs, as well as 254.952 g and 77.982 cm3 for the mass and volume of 0.600 mm OPPs. By comparison, the GRA values produced positive percentage improvement over other optimal values. The unique contribution of this paper are principally the (i) application of GRA in a novel manner, incorporating harmonic mean in factor-level determination and computation of S/N responses; (ii) development of new indices of tapped density; and (iii) introduction of economic factors in tapped density computations, incorporating inflation and interest factors. The practical utility of the demonstrated approach lies in reducing the uncertainties about density measurements in the transportation of green fillers for use as composite reinforcements.

Keywords

• Optimisation
• Grey relational analysis
• Taguchi method
• Economic factors