Measurement of Specific Heat Capacity of Plastic Waste / Fly Ash Recycled Composite Using Differential Scanning Calorimeter

Abstract

The present paper deals with the measurement of the specific heat capacity of plastic waste / fly ash recycled composite and its components using both a differential scanning calorimeter and sapphire discs as the reference material. The measurement is carried out at the temperature below the melting point of plastic component. The constant heating rates are set at 2.5 and 10 K·min^-1. The specific heat capacity of the recycled composite for the heating rates 2 and 5 K·min^-1 increases from 1.3 to 1.6 kJ·kg^-1·K^-1 with increasing the temperature from 305 to 360 K. And the deviation of the data is within±3%. But the data for 10 K·min^-1 are about 2% lower than those for 2 K·min^-1. The specific heat capacity is independent of the shape and mass of the recycled composite sample. The specific heat capacity of the fire retardant is equivalent to that of the fly ash. And the specific heat capacity of the recycled composite depends heavily on the content of the plastic waste.