Drop-weight impact test on laminated composite plate of flax (Linum usitatissimum) using rice husk ash from paddy (Oryza sativa) as a natural binder

Composite structures and materials are used in aerospace, marine and automotive applications due to their light weight characteristics. By using rice husk ash (RHA) as natural binder to replace epoxy resin, it improves the characteristic of the composite laminated structure. Rice husk has become an important ingredient in silica, silicon carbide, and silicon nitride because of its high a silicon content. This paper evaluates the performance of laminated composite plate in a drop-weight impact testing. Two plates are attached to the test rig in the particular desired impact orientation. The main advantages of this process are the plates provide more realistic drop-weight impact and data. Data from the impact test was collected and analysed to evaluate the material properties of epoxy resin and RHA. Results show RHA's energy absorption is better and it has more deformation to prevent structure failures compared with epoxy resin. This paper aims to evaluate the application of RHA as a geopolymer binder and flax fibre as an alternative material to glass fibre in the composites industry

A Feasibility Study of Internal and External Based System for Pipeline Leak Detection in Upstream Petroleum Industry

Offshore underwater pipelines leaks begin at poor joints, corrosions and cracks and slowly progress to a major leakage. Accidents, terror, sabotage, or theft are some of human factor of pipeline leak. The primary purpose of Pipeline Leak Detection Systems(PLDS) is to assist pipeline managers in detecting and locating leaks earlier. PLDS provides an alarm and display other related data to the pipeline engineers for their decision-making. It is also beneficial because of PLDS can enhance their productivity by reduced downtime and inspection time. PLDS can be divided into internally base PLDS and external hardware base PLDS. The purpose of this paper is to study the various types of leak detection systems based on internal and externally system simultaneously.Meanwhile to define a set of key criteria for evaluating the characteristics of this system and provide an evaluation method of leak detection technology as a guideline of choosing the appropriate system in the future

Enhancing rice husk ash-based aluminosilicate fire retardant additive as a passive fire protection material

Several major research studies have concluded that most fire retardants (FR) are associated with numerous environmental and human health concerns, which led them to be replaced by more eco-friendly alternatives. Since Malaysia has been producing abundant of rice husk (RH), the utilisation of rice husk ash (RHA) as an aluminosilicate source in fire-resistant coating could reduce the environmental pollution and can turn agricultural waste into industrial wealth. The main objective of this research is to develop an eco-friendly RHA-based aluminosilicate FR additive. Four experiments were conducted; namely fire resistant, tensile, adhesion, and water absorption tests to assess the microstructure behavior of the developed RHA-based aluminosilicate FR additive. Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to design the experiments incorporating two factors; namely ratio of FR additive to paint and their interrelationship and effect on FR coating properties were analysed using analysis of variance (ANOVA). The relationship of different pre-treatment on the production of silica content from RH were also studied to understand the relationship of each pre-treatment on the produced silica content from RHA. From the fire resistance test and scanning electron microscopy images, higher ratio of RHA-based aluminosilicate contributed a better fire protection efficiency due to the formation of thicker char layer thickness which affected the equilibrium temperature. For both tensile and adhesion strength, the addition of RHA-based aluminosilicate FR improved the ultimate tensile strength and adhesion strength due to dense gel phase which has a well-connected structure and less unreacted particles on the surface coating. However, major drawback on the addition of RHA-based aluminosilicate is the enhancement of water permeation which led to the deterioration of the coating samples. Thus, it can be summarized that silica efficiently improved the strength and compactness of the char layer, which resulted in a relatively higher fire retardant efficiency. In this research, RHA proved to be a good aluminosilicate source alternative for fire retardant additive due to its intumescent process, which can potentially improve building fire safety through passive fire protection

Evaluation of the effects of soda-lime-silica glass with rice husk ash as an additive on the hardness behavior

Demand for eco-friendly materials increases each year due to their excellent properties, which has proved to contribute to developing a sustainable environment. One of the promising raw materials in producing Glass is rice husk, a waste product from paddy harvesting, containing about 90% of silica. Rice husks are usually burnt in an open area and contribute to severe air pollution problems. In this research, Soda-Lime-Silica Rice Husk Ash (SLRHA) glass which is a new combination of soda-lime silicate (SLS) glass and rice husk ash (RHA), was developed for building glass and window application. The hardness properties of the developed SLS-RHA glass system are presented in this paper. These glasses were investigated to determine the effect of RHA addition on the physical properties of SLS glass. The experimental works using RSM have successfully identified the significant factors and optimized the responses. Based on the Rockwell hardness test, the outcomes demonstrated that the glass sample contained 29.84% weight SLS and 0.06% weight RHA. The result indicated that crack propagation was increased with the increasing addition of RHA, which causes an increase in cracks and voids due to the creation of more debonding

Analysis of Optimal Performance for Nonlinear Gantry Crane System using MOPSO with Linear Weight Summation Approach

This paper presents development of Multi-Objective Particle Swarm Optimization (MOPSO) with Linear Weight Summation (LWS) approach to make the GCS more efficient and effective. The purpose of using LWS is to control the desired trolley position and payload oscillation according to the settling time (Ts), steady-state error (SSE) and overshoot (OS). The effectiveness of variation in weight summation is observed to find the optimal performances of the system. It will be demonstrated that GCS is able to achieve the goals and able to move the trolley as fast as possible to the desired position with low payload oscillation

Damage identification on impact and lightning damage of flax composite laminates (Linum usitatissimum) using long-pulse thermography of a low-resolution infrared camera

The demand for composite fiber material is significantly high due to its excellent mechanical properties and its use in various industries. Recently, with the increasing awareness of environmental issues, researchers are now focusing more on eco-friendly and green materials. A biocomposite offers a good balance of strength and stiffness ratio, bending and membrane mechanical properties, balanced thermal distortion stability, reduced weight and cost, improved fatigue resistance, reduced notch sensitivity, and, comparatively, better performance than synthetic composites. Yet, due to the complex anisotropy of the composite material, the inspection and detection of inner defects become a challenge. Long-pulse thermography is one of the non-destructive evaluations (NDEs) used to detect defects in composite materials. However, very limited research has been carried out on the usage of a low-resolution infrared camera to perform defect or damage inspection on flax composite laminates. In this paper, an experimental setup of a long pulse thermography system using low-resolution infrared camera was performed on flax bio-composite to identify impact and lightning damage. The result highlights that with control parameters, a low-resolution infrared camera has the capability to capture the lightning and impact defects of flax biocomposites using the long-pulse thermography system. An image processing method is then applied to the defect to improve the quality of defect detection and reduce background noise