Materials with character : designing with biocomposites.
| dc.contributor.author | Thundathil, Manu | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-05-29T01:58:00Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-05-29T01:58:00Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2023 | |
| dc.description.abstract | The material research world today is in a fervent pursuit of developing sustainable materials that could substitute non-renewable and fossil-based materials. Consumers, manufacturers and regulatory agencies favour the adoption of sustainable materials which reduce adverse environmental impacts and provide a sustainable alternative to fast-exhausting natural resources. Biobased composites provide an excellent material substitute, incorporating biobased ingredients and offering excellent material characteristics suitable for consumer products. While the general awareness regarding material sustainability has increased, this is not reflected in the raw material supply chains as well as consumer products. Biobased plastics (and biocomposites by extension) still form only a tiny sliver in comparison with the overall polymer production at present, and most of the attempts at achieving material sustainability have been primarily limited to incorporating biobased fillers into traditional polymers. The overarching aim of this thesis is to identify pathways to develop highvalue sustainable materials like biocomposites, which can address this gap in the market. Hence, the thesis begins with a detailed review of the present status of biocomposites as a material family, their advantages and disadvantages. This literature review revealed that while biobased composites provide a compelling material option, they are limited by technical and perceptual handicaps. Most of the research in this field has been aimed at addressing the technical drawbacks and preparing materials that could imitate the technical characteristics of conventional materials. However, perceptual issues such as lack of identity and poor perception of value and aesthetics, which are critical to the success of consumer products, have yet to be explored. Thus, this research attempts to understand the framework of material perception so that the critical material parameters influencing perception are identified; defining these variables and their relationships could help material designers create biobased composites that consumers favourably perceive. The Semantic Differential method was used to understand how people perceive various biobased materials, followed by a ranked-order comparison. This research saw four consumer perception studies, with the early studies being exploratory. Each study contributed to the subsequent ones by narrowing the survey scope to the key attributes. The first study concentrated only on the role of visual ( digital) stimuli in forming perception, and this revealed the role of visual characteristics like fibreness, visual order, contrast, and perceived roughness on material perception. This study also found no effect of age, gender or polymer type on material perception. A set of attribute-attribute relationships which could contribute to a desirable (beautiful, valuable, strong) and distinguishable (natural) perception was also determined. This study was followed by a second visual-tactile (physical) perception study, which was instrumental in revealing the significance of tactility in forming perception. Since most human interaction with objects is in visual-tactile mode, this helped define and identify the critical material properties and their relationships with emotional attributes. Some of these emotional attributes were also found to correlate with others, and the combination of material and attribute correlations led to the creation of a biocomposite perception framework. This framework portrayed the relationships between various key attributes (beauty, value and naturality) and the material characteristics (visual and tactile) that influenced the potency of these attributes. These results, in contrast with the digital study, were also helpful in understanding the limitations of perceiving objects digitally, especially in an ecommerce context. However, the analysis of these early studies was primarily quantitative, and to examine the robustness of the attribute selection and to probe for additional influences, subsequent studies included qualitative modules. One key finding from the qualitative data was the influence of past material experiences in forming material perception. These qualitative studies clarified the aptness of the elements in the proposed framework, and a final study was conducted to test the robustness of this framework. This validation study included consumers and designers as two distinct groups of respondents. A prediction of biocomposite performance (against the key attributes) based on the proposed framework was also made, and this ranking prediction was compared with the actual perceptual rankings from the consumers. The results showed statistically significant correlations between predicted ranks and actual ranks by consumers, indicating a reliable perception framework. This framework was converted into a prediction model with modified weights for material characteristics, and this produced even stronger correlations, pointing to a dependable model for predicting material perception. Interestingly, there was a perceptual dissonance between consumers and designers, revealing that designers might not accurately assess how consumers perceive materials. This dissonance may be attributed to the designers' familiarity with a wide range of materials and the biases due to their professional practice. Hence, the perception framework can also serve as a tool for assisting designers in material identification and selection. This thesis offers insights into how people perceive biocomposites as well as relationships between various material characteristics and perceptual attributes. This perception framework can be integrated with the conventional product design process as a perception-based material design process. This framework can help product designers and material scientists to collaborate and create biocomposites tailor-made for specific consumer segments or product categories. This approach would lead to perceptually attuned products which offer better consumer experiences, leading to extended product ownership and reduced obsolescence. | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://hdl.handle.net/10092/107122 | |
| dc.identifier.uri | https://doi.org/10.26021/15370 | |
| dc.language | English | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.rights | All Right Reserved | |
| dc.rights.uri | https://canterbury.libguides.com/rights/theses | |
| dc.title | Materials with character : designing with biocomposites. | |
| dc.type | Theses / Dissertations | |
| thesis.degree.discipline | Product Design | |
| thesis.degree.grantor | University of Canterbury | |
| thesis.degree.level | Doctoral | |
| thesis.degree.name | Doctor of Philosophy | |
| uc.college | Faculty of Engineering |
Files
License bundle
1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
- Name:
- license.txt
- Size:
- 1.71 KB
- Format:
- Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
- Description: