Water hyacinth (EichhorniaCrassipes) polymer composites properties - aquatic waste into successful commercial product

In modern times, the demand for natural fibers is increased due to low density, low cost, recyclability, and biodegradable properties. Following work deals with the aquatic waste of water hyacinth plant fiber. The main intent of this work is to utilize the hyacinth plant into a successive manner and convert this plant into some commercial products. It is used as reinforcement material and epoxy polymer resin in matrix material with a suitable percentage of hardener (10:1). A new method such as a mechanical way of extraction process is introduced in this work. The different weight percentage of the hyacinth fiber is reinforced with matrix material like 15, 20, 25, 30, and 35%. With the help of a compression molding, machine water hyacinth reinforced fiber composite is produced by using 1500 PSI pressure and 110 °C, 100 °C of upper and lower plate temperature. A composite sample is cut into as per ASTM standards and the mechanical tests like tensile, flexural, impact test is conducted by using universal testing machine (UTM), and Charpy impact test machine. Based on the final mechanical test results, the 30% of hyacinth composite sample tensile 36.48 MPa, flexural 48.62 MPa, impact 0.5 J, and hardness 98 attained then, the hyacinth composite samples are adopted into water and chemical absorption test with 10 hours, 1week, 1month of continuous monitoring. Based on the final results, hyacinth fiber is strongly recommended to use an alternative of synthetic fibers and conventional natural fibers. The hyacinth composite is strongly recommended for the usage of commercial and household applications

Preparation and properties of cellulose / tamarind nut powder green composites

Using biopolymer cellulose as the matrix and tamarind nut powder (TNP) obtained from agricultural waste of tamarind nuts as the filler, the green composites were made. Cellulose was dissolved in environmental friendly solvent of aq. 8 wt. % Lithium hydroxide and 15 wt. % urea which was precooled to −12 ° C. To the cellulose solutions, TNP was added in 5 wt. % to 25 wt. % of cellulose separately. Each solution was evenly spread on glass plates and the wet composites were prepared by regeneration method using ethyl alcohol coagulation bath. The wet films were dried in air at room temperature. The dried composite films were characterized by FTIR spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction, thermogravimetric analysis and also tested for their tensile properties. The tensile strength and the % elongation at break of the composites were higher than those of the matrix and increased with TNP content. While the matrix had a tensile strength of 111.8 MPa, the cellulose/TNP composite loaded with 25 wt.% TNP possessed a tensile strength of 125.4 MPa (12% increase). Though the thermal stability of the composites was lower than cellulose matrix, all the composites were stable up to a temperature of 350 °C

EFFECT OF FIBER VOLUME FRACTION ON THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF COCONUT SHEATH/USP COMPOSITE

ABSTRACT Natural fibers and their composites are the emerging trends in material science which are the replacements for the synthetic reinforcements. Because of their high specific strength and less processing requirements most of the plant based fibers are become center of research. This work used one of the novel reinforcements viz. "coconut sheath". This reinforcement is directly drawn from the bottom portions of the coconut tree followed by minimum pre-processing before being used. Fiber volume fraction (FVF) is one of the most important factor when composite is in concern. The optimal level of reinforcement only can exhibit good bearing property. In this work, there four different fiber volumes were practiced in order to find the optimal fiber volume fraction. Density and hardness were taken as a measure for rheological properties, where flexural, ILSS and impact tests for mechanical properties. Result shows that, the trend in all the properties increased as a function of increase in fiber volume fraction except for impact strength

Tensile and Flexural properties of MMT-clay/ Unsaturated Polyester using Robust Design Concept

Abstract. The effect of Nano-clay on the mechanical properties of Isophthalic unsaturated polyester was studied with the help of robust design Concept. Organo modified MMT nano-clay (Nanomer 1.31PS) was used as reinforcement. The weight percentage of nano-clay, impeller blade design, mixing hours and mixing speed were taken as control factors. In Taguchi design of experiments, L9 orthogonal array was employed to investigate the effect of control factors on mechanical properties such as tensile and flexural strength. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Atomic force microscopy (AFM) results show the intercalation /exfoliation of clays in the polyester matrix

Effect of stacking sequence of fibre metal laminates with carbon fibre reinforced composites on mechanical attributes : numerical simulations and experimental validation

Fibre Metal Laminates are structures used primarily in aerospace applications because of their principal advantages such as high strength, lower density, and impact resistance. In the present work, a systematic assessment has been made to evaluate two different stacking sequences of FMLs (Type – I (AA 6061/Carbon Fibre/AA 6061/Carbon Fibre/AA 6061), and Type – II (Carbon Fibre/AA 6061/Carbon Fibre/AA 6061/Carbon Fibre)) against a pure carbon composite (Type - III) as baseline for improvement. The investigations are made for enhanced impact resistance, improved tensile strength, increased flexural capability, microstructural evolution, and surface composition. Mechanical-based testing resulted that Type – I shows significant performance followed by Type – II. The maximum values of tensile strength, impact test, and ultimate load bearing capacity of during flexural test were around 192.92 MPa, 9.3 J, and 155 N, respectively. Correlations of experimental results were drawn against numerical simulation to validate the tensile and flexural results. Microstructural evolution indicated good bonding capability of Type – I FML with the carbon fibre. EDX analysis was carried out analyse surface chemistry. Selected Fibre Metal Laminate sequence can help in improving aeronautical industry's structural applications because of good ductile properties together with fatigue strength and impact resistance

An overview of burst, buckling, durability and corrosion analysis of lightweight FRP composite pipes and their applicability

© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.The main aim of this review article was to address the performance of filament wound fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) composite pipes and their critical properties, such as burst, buckling, durability and corrosion. The importance of process parameters concerning merits and demerits of the manufacturing methods was discussed for the better-quality performance. Burst analysis revealed that the winding angle of ±55° was observed to be optimum with minimum failure mechanisms, such as matrix cracking, whitening, leakage and fracture. The reduction of buckling effect was reported in case of lower hoop stress value in the hoop to axial stress ratio against axial, compression and torsion. A significant improvement in energy absorption was observed in the hybrid composite pipes with the effect of thermal treatment. However, the varying winding angle in FRP pipe fabrication was reported as an influencing factor affecting all the aforementioned properties. Almost 90% of the reviewed studies was done using E-glass/epoxy materials for the composite pipe production. By overcoming associated limitations, such as replacing synthetic materials, designing new material combinations and cost-benefit analysis, the production cost of the lightweight FRP composite pipes can be decreased for the real-time applications.Peer reviewe

A Bio-Inspired Hybrid Computation for Managing and Scheduling Virtual Resources using Cloud Concepts

Resource allocation and scheduling is one of the major issues in manufacturing industries which are constrained to offer dynamic and virtualized resources to end users in-order to maximize the profit. Cloud manufacturing is a new paradigm that can satisfy the requirements of modern manufacturing industries. In this work, two variants of heuristic algorithm are used to solve resource scheduling issues in casting industries. Particle swarm optimization algorithm is used in this work, because it can solve large scale optimization problems with better search speed, and genetic algorithms can be used to provide solution for non-linear and highly intricate engineering problems. This work uses a hybrid approach which combines the advantages of genetic algorithm with particle swarm optimization in-order to provide global convergence at effective and optimal cost. Experimentation was carried out for casting of engine block in manufacturing industry and the simulation results shows that PSO with GA provides global optimal convergence and also produces effective results with respect to time, cost and resource utilizatio

Mechanical and thermal properties of a novel Spinifex Littoreus fiber reinforced polymer composites as an alternate for synthetic glass fiber composites

The usage of natural fiber reinforced composite is large in engineering applications due to the presence of high extensive properties and economy. This paper aims at presenting a new fiber, its characteristics, and composite in a polymeric matrix empowering the generation of less weight composites for load conveying applications. Spinifex Littoreus Fiber (SLF) is a genus of perennial coastal plants in the grass family. The comprehensive characterization that includes physical analysis, chemical analysis, thermal analysis, mechanical and microstructural characteristics have been carried out on the fiber. The effect of fiber weight percentage was studied from the point of view of the mechanical properties of the compression moulded Spinifex Littoreus Fiber Composites (SLFC). Mechanical properties attained at 40 wt% of fiber content were better. In addition to more fiber, it tends to cause inadequate bonding among the matrix and fiber, resulting in a decrease in mechanical performance. The specific properties of SLFC polymer composites are comparable to those of the glass fiber composite. This makes SLFC composite as an alternate lightweight material. SEM was performed for a study of the interfacial mechanism