Practice of Taguchi design of experiments in the valuation of mechanical behavior of rigid polyurethane foam composites

In the present study, Taguchi design of experiments (DOEs) L18 orthogonal array has been used for the investigation of the mechanical behavior of rigid polyurethane foam (RPUF) composites. The outcome of the process parameters such as polyol, filler, surfactant, catalyst, blowing agent, and anti-flaming agent on the mechanical properties, such as tensile, flexural, and compressive strengths and hardness (Shore D) of RPUF composites, has been examined, and the resulted data were analyzed by means of Taguchi design of experiments. The raw data for the average values of the mechanical properties and the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio for each parameter were evaluated at three levels, and the analysis of variance (ANOVA) and optimum process parameters are determined. The confirmation experiments were performed for the validation of the improved performance and to measure the contribution of individual parameter on the responses. The confirmation experiments revealed the average tensile strength, average compressive strength, average flexural strength, and average hardness (Shore D) as 5.24 MPa, 6.37 MPa, 12.28 MPa, and 72.43, respectively, which fall within the 95% confidence interval of the anticipated optimum process parameters.