Investigation of microwave absorption performance of anti-radiation plastic cement brick

Abstract

The increasing demand for effective anti-microwave radiation materials motivates the exploration of sustainable and eco-friendly alternatives. This research investigates the microwave absorption properties of various brick compositions, including commercial brick (CB) and solid bricks (SB1, SB2 and SB3) incorporating recycled materials, polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and palm oil fuel ash (POFA). The dimension of the developed brick is 200×100×60 mm (length×width×height). The absorption performance of the bricks was measured in 100 mm and 60 mm thickness across the frequency range of 1 to 12 GHz using the naval research laboratory (NRL) free space arch method. At 100 mm thickness, SB3 shows the highest absorption up to-32.2061 dB at 1.98 GHz. At 60 mm thickness, SB1 achieved the maximum absorption at -57.6511 dB at 2.505 GHz. SB2 shows consistent average absorption performance at 15.2064 dB at 100 mm thickness and -19.5 dB at 60 mm thickness respectively. The compressive strength of the brick was measured, and it was shown that SB2 exhibited the highest average compressive strength of 7.17 MPa. Considering the standard wall thickness and brick strength, SB2 shows the most effective performance due to its enhanced composition and consistent performance across frequencies.