QUANTIFICATION OF THE CONTRIBUTION OF FILLER CHARACTERISTICS TO NATURAL RUBBER REINFORCEMENT USING PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS

ABSTRACT Practical statistical models were developed to quantify individual contributions from characteristics of conventional and non-conventional fillers and predict resulting mechanical properties of both hevea and guayule natural rubber composites. Carbon black N330 and four different agro-industrial residues, namely, eggshells, carbon fly ash, processing tomato peels, and guayule bagasse, were used in this study. Filler characteristics were used as explanatory variables in multiple linear regression analyses. Principal component analysis was used to evaluate correlations among explanatory variables based on their correlation matrices and to transform them into a new set of independent variables, which were then used to generate reliable regression models. Surface area, dispersive component of surface energy, carbon black, and waste-derived filler loading were found to have almost equal importance in the prediction of composite properties. However, models developed for ultimate elongation poorly expla...