Duangkamol Dechojarassri

 

Education

2003-2004:             Master student of Engineering in Chemical Engineering, (expected graduation April 2005)

                Thammasat University-Rangsit Campus, Pathum Thani, Thailand

1999-2002:             Bachelor of Engineering in Chemical Engineering,

                Thammasat University-Rangsit Campus, Pathum Thani, Thailand

1997-1998:             Grade 12, Mahidolwittayanusorn School, Nakornpatorm, Thailand

 

 

Thesis Title

Natural Rubber Composites for Railway Sleepers: A Feasibility Study

Advisor: Asst. Prof. Cattaleeya Pattamaprom       (Department of Chemical Engineering, Thammasat University)

Co-advisor: Prof. Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai            (School of Civil Engineering, Asian Institute of Technology)

Co-advisor: Assoc. Prof. Chakrit  Sirisinha             (Department of Chemistry, Mahidol University)

 

Natural rubber is one of the primary agricultural products of Thailand. At present, the production of natural rubber in Thailand exceeds the internal and external market demands. The short-term solution of auctioning the stock of rubber may result in further fall of rubber’s price in a long run. A more sustainable solution is to find more value-added applications for natural rubbers in a wide range of industries. Up to now, natural rubber has already found some applications in the construction industry, such as in rubber-asphalt mixtures for road surfacing, rubber bearings for bridges, rubber plates for vibration absorbers, and rubber block for seismic isolation of tall buildings.

Last two years, the RTG’s Ministry of Transport and Communication appointed a special committee, which included a representative of AIT, to consider other possible major applications of natural rubber. One  possibility is to use rubber composites as railway sleepers. The traditional railway sleepers are made from natural hard wood due to its stress, as well as its impact resistance. Moreover, installing the rail tracks over wooden sleepers is a simple process without sophisticate special fasteners. Lately, due to the shortage of woods, more and more railway sleepers are made from other materials such as reinforced concrete, scrapped rubber tires and plastic materials.  Although reinforced concrete is found to perform satisfactorily with its relatively high stress, installing the rail track requires a special set of fasteners. Thus, the overall cost of concrete sleepers increases greatly because of the fasteners. Sleepers made of scrapped rubber and plastic materials have recently been introduced in the United State.  The cost is about 2 times higher than concrete sleepers, but it was claimed to have a longer life cycle.

In this report, different natural rubber composites were studied with the aim to be utilized as railway sleepers. Natural rubber is proposed as the primary raw material because Thailand is currently the largest producer of rubber in the world. If the project finds a successful composite of natural rubber that fits for railway sleepers, the country will benefit from being able to exploit the large stock of natural rubber she over-produces every year. This in turn will stabilize the market price of natural rubber. Prototypes of railway sleepers will be made from different composites of natural rubber, and will be tested based on the functional requirements of railway sleepers in cooperation with the State Railways of Thailand. As railway tracks can be installed by regular spikes as in the case of wooden sleepers, Thailand will not need to import special fasteners.  In addition, once the technology is well proven, Thailand, with her current advantage of the top rubber producer of the world, can export this technology to neighboring countries.

 

Presentations

 

·          Cattaleeya Pattamaprom, Duangkamol Dechojarassri and Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai, “Can Nanotechnology Have a Role in the Design of Rubber-Based Composite Railway Ties?”, Workshop on Nano, Continuum, Material and Computational Mechanics,  December 11th -12th, 2003, AIT, Bangkok

·          Duangkamol Dechojarassri, Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai, and Cattaleeya Pattamaprom, “Evaluation of Crosslink Density and Its Effect on Compressive Strength for Ebonite Natural Rubbers”, The Third Thailand Materials Science and Technology Conference, August 10th -11th, 2004 , Miracle Grand Convention Hotel, Bangkok

·          Duangkamol Dechojarassri, Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai, and Cattaleeya Pattamaprom, “Effect of Cure Time and Crosslink Density on Compressive Strength of Ebonite Rubber”, The 21th Century COE Program of Nagaoka University of Technology (COE), August 10th -11th, 2004 , Miracle Grand Convention Hotel, Bangkok

·          Duangkamol Dechojarassri, Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai, and Cattaleeya Pattamaprom, “Evaluation of Crosslink Density and Its Effect on Compressive Strength for Ebonite Natural Rubbers”, The 1st KMITL International Conference on Integration of Science & Technology for Sustainable Development, August 25th -26th, 2004, KMITL, Bangkok

·          Cattaleeya Pattamaprom and Duangkamol Dechojarassri, “Modification of Natural Rubber Composite for Railway Sleeper Application”, Forum on Potential of natural Rubber in Railway Sleeper Application, November 9th, 2004, SMEs, Pathum Thani

·          Cattaleeya Pattamaprom and Duangkamol Dechojarassri, “Mechanical property Enhancement by Tuning on Crosslink Density”, Forum on Potential of natural Rubber in Railway Sleeper Application, November 9th, 2004, SMEs, Pathum Thani

·          Duangkamol Dechojarassri, Worsak Kanok-Nukulchai, and Cattaleeya Pattamaprom, “The Effect of Cure Conditions on Mechanical Properties of Ebonite Natural Rubber: A Comparative Study Between Before and After Compression Test”, The International Conference on Smart Materials (SmartMat-’04), December 1st -3rd, 2004, Imperial Mae Ping, Chiang Mai