Compression Test and Energy Absorption of Polyurethane/Multi Walled Carbon Nanotubes Foam Composites

This paper describes the effect of multi walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) on the properties, especially the strength properties of rigid polyurethane (PU) foams produced from palm oil based polyol (POP) and methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (MDI). The foam composites in the ratio of 1:1.1 (wt. %) mixed at speed 2000 rpm. The addition of MWCNTs into PU foam are varies from 0 wt. % to 3 wt. %. The properties evaluated were compressive strength, density and energy absorption. Compressive strength of PU foam composites with 0.5% of MWCNTs showed the highest value 1.162 MPa of compressive strength compared to other foam composites. It was proved by modeling displacement nodal magnitude using NX Software (version 8.5). The density was increased 15.69 % with addition of 0.5 % MWCNTs into the PU foam. Increasing the amount of MWCNTs in PU foam was found to improve the energy absorption from 22.89 J for pure PU to 24.53 J for foam composites with 3 % MWCNTs.