Composite Manhole Covers Prepared with
Recycled Printed Circuit Boards
Ismail Dar
Department of Mechatronics Engineering.
National University of Sciences and Technology.
Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
ismailqadeerdar321@gmail.com
Abstract—
Keywords— Finite element analysis (FEA), Manhole cover, Printed circuit boards (PCBs)
I. INTRODUCTION
A manhole cover is a removable plate forming the lid
over the opening of the manhole. The manhole cover is
essential in the modern urban construction of municipal
facilities. It is traditionally made from cast iron consisting of
a frame and cover. The manhole cover should have enough
strength to support the heavy traffic load. Problem is, it is
traditionally made of cast iron which is heavy and difficult
to handle manually and is vulnerable to impact force with its
brittle characteristics. More importantly, however, its
production process of casting is widely criticized for
polluting the environment, and thus is regulated in terms of
environmental pollution.
In this study, considering the drawbacks of the
traditional cast-iron manhole cover, we propose to conduct a
comparative study of composite manhole covers prepared
utilizing recycled printed circuit boards (PCBs) and the
traditional cast-iron manhole cover.
A printed circuit board (PCB) is used to mechanically
and electrically connect electrical components, during circuit
construction. PCBs comprise of thermoset resins (30%),
glass fiber (30%), and metals (40%). The thermoset resins
are accompanied with glass fibers to generate glass fiber-
reinforced polymers (GFRPs).
The enormous electronics industry places massive
demand for printed circuit boards (PCBs), which are used in
all electronic circuitry. This, however, has led to an
exponential increase of discarded PCBs over the years and
with most research focusing only on recycling the metal
components of a PCB, the GFRPs are generally crushed into
small particles and sent to landfill sites.
Previous research shows that, by thermal
decomposition, the glass fibers can be recovered from the
GFRPs [1,2], and the PCB-derived glass fibers have
considerable performance and favorable properties when
compared to commercial products [3]. According to recent
studies, bulk molding compounds (BMCs), which are
GFRPs with a thermoset resin matrix, have promising
1
Talha Javed
Department of Mechatronics Engineering.
National University of Sciences and Technology.
Rawalpindi, Pakistan.
talha.javed321@gmail.com
properties while being cost-friendly. Thus utilizing such
compounds, instead of cast iron, in manhole covers would
not only be a viable approach, but it also can avoid theft
issues [4].
The utilization of circuit boards recycled particles
(CBPs) as a filler can enhance the mechanical properties of
the resultant BMC material while also making full use of the
waste PCB [5, 18]. The filler is important in improving the
mechanical and thermal properties of the composite material
[6].
Thus by utilizing particles of waste PCBs as a
reinforcing filler, bulk molding composites are prepared for
the manufacture of composite manhole covers, which will
satisfy all the standard requirements (GB/T 23858-2009) for
manhole covers.
II. METHADOLOGY
a) Introduction
In this study, considering the drawbacks of the traditional
cast-iron manhole covers; we have proposed the construction
of manhole covers using recycled printed circuit boards
(PCBs). We conducted a comparative static structural
analysis of our polymer matrix composite (PMCs)
manhole cover and the traditional cast-iron manhole cover.
Polymer matrix composites are heat-resistant, corrosion-
resistant, anti-aging, non-polluting, etc. Polymer matrix
composites are also made from waste material and therefore
are an environmentally friendly option.
b) Properties
The composite material was assumed to be isotropic and the
stress–displacement relationship was linear because the glass
fibers are randomly distributed in the material.
The following are flexural and compression modulus of the
composite material, along with the Poisson’s ratio between
them.
Material Property Value e) Finite Element Analysis
Shear modulus 11.67 GPa In this work, a finite element program was used to analyze
Young’s modulus 4.06 GPa the static and stresses and strains occurring in the manhole
Poisson ratio 0.3 cover, when subjected to static loading tests.
Compression strength 95.74 MPa The mesh created by the FEA program is shown below.
Flexural strength 124.29 The results from FEA will show that the force bearing
condition of composite manhole cover which is beneficial
c) Theoretical analysis for the design and evaluation procedures.
Static structural analysis of the manhole cover was done
theoretically.
For theoretical analysis, we use the force under one tire of a
sedan, because this is the force that the manhole cover, on a
road, can be subjected to, at a time.
To calculate stress, we use the formula:
σ = F/A,
where A is the area of contact under a tire.
Since we know the young’s modulus, we calculate the
strain’s in the manhole cover, by the formula:
E = σ/ε.
Once the strain has been calculated, using the formula:
Strain= change in length/ original length,
we can calculate the total deformation.
Similarly since we have the modulus of rigidity, or the shear
modulus, and we know the forces acting on the manhole
cover, we calculate the shear strain, using the formula:
γ = τG, Fig. 2. Meshed 3D model
where γ = shear strain,
τ = shear stress and G = modulus of rigidity.

d) 3D CAD Model
III. REFERENCES

Outer diameter 350mm

Inner diameter 320mm
Length of each side of cube 10mm

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101, 815 (2013).
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[3]. Z. Sun, Z. Shen, S. Ma, and X. Zhang, J. Mater. Eng. Perform., 22,
3140 (2013).
[4]. S. El Haggar and L. El Hatow, J. Clean. Prod., 17, 440 (2009).
[5]. M.C.S. Ribeiro, A.C. Meira-Castro, F.G. Silva, J. Santos, J.P. Meixedo,
A. Fiuza, M.L. Dinis, and M.R. Alvim, Resour. Conserv. Recycl., 104, 417
(2015).
[6]. S. Sprenge, J. Mater. Sci., 49, 2391 (2014).

Fig. 1. CAD Model

For the static structural analysis and fatigue tests to be

carried out, a 3D CAD model of the manhole cover was
designed on modeling software. The dimensions of the 3D
model are given below: