Measurement of the Specific Heat of Plastic Waste/Fly Ash Composite Material Using Differential Scanning Calorimetry

Plastic waste/fly ash composite, which is made mostly from plastic waste and fly ash, is one of the materials developed for the purpose of recycling. Currently, the composite is used for cable troughs shielding underground lines. However, there exists little information concerning the thermophysical properties of the composite. Thermophysical properties and the structure of the composite must be determined to estimate the heat transfer in the composite and create the different proportions of the composite material. This article deals with measurements of the specific heat of the plastic waste/fly ash composite and its components using a differential scanning calorimeter. The composite sample, which ranged from 10 mg to 19 mg in mass, was cut from a cable trough. The standard reference material is synthetic sapphire disks of 19.6 mg and 29.6 mg in mass. The specific heat of the plastic waste/fly ash composite increases from 1.25 kJ center dot kg(-1) center dot K(-1) to 1.59 kJ center dot kg(-1) center dot K(-1) at temperatures from 305 K to 360 K. The uncertainty for the specific heat data of the composite is estimated to be about 4 %. In addition, the specific heat value depends heavily on the content of the plastic waste.