Mechanical and thermal properties of Kenaf reinforced thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU)-natural rubber (NR) composites

In this paper, natural rubber (NR) was mixed with thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) and kenaf as fillerreinforcement for the polymer composite. Mixing the material using the internal mixer and hot press machine was able toblend the material homogeneously. Investigation of the new polymer composite characterisation was carried out by thermalgravimetric analysis (TGA), along with tensile, flexural and impact tests. The TGA for the polymer composite achieved322⁰C before degradation and increase in tensile and impact strength with the increase of TPU in the polymer compositematrices were observed. The result indicated an improvement in tensile, flexural and impact strength for the kenaf filledTPU-NR composites. The mixing of kenaf fibre and TPU-NR polymer showed degradation that was gradually diminishingturned into ashes. TGA result showed all compositions of kenaf filled TPU-NR composites samples shared the same peaktemperature, being degraded at 600⁰C

Mechanical and moisture diffusion behaviour of hybrid Kevlar/Cocos nucifera sheath reinforced epoxy composites

The aim of this research is partial replacement of plain woven Kevlar 29(K) with naturally woven cocous nucifera sheath (CS) waste. Laminated K/CS reinforced epoxy hybrid composites were fabricated by hand lay-up method followed by hot compression moulding with 105 °C temperature at 275 bar pressure for 1 h. The total fibre loading of the hybrid composite was maintained 45 wt.% and the ratio of Kevlar and Cocous nucifera sheath varies in weight fraction of 100/0, 75/25, 50/50, 25/75, and 0/100. Mechanical (tensile, flexural, impact), moisture diffusion and morphological behaviour of the laminated composites were evaluated. The results showed that the hybrid composites (75/25) declined the tensile strength by 19% compared to Kevlar fabric reinforced epoxy composites. But, the hybrid composites (75/25) exhibited highest flexural strength (175 MPa) and flexural modulus (18 GPa) than pure Kevlar reinforced epoxy composites. Moreover, the impact toughness of hybrid composites (86 kJ/m2) at 75/25 wt.% showed good agreement with the pure Kevlar fabric reinforced polymer composites (90 kJ/m2). From the moisture diffusion analysis, hybrid composites (75/25) exhibited better moisture resistance. Statistical analysis of the results has been carried out using one way-ANOVA (analysis of variance) and it shows that there is a statically significant difference between the obtained mechanical properties of the laminated composites. Morphology of the tensile fractured laminates showed the delamination's, matrix cracking and fibre/matrix adhesion. From the results, it has been concluded that naturally woven Cocos nucifera sheath has the potential to replace Kevlar fabric in the polymer composites exclusively for defence applications. Keywords: Hybrid composites, Laminated composites, Kevlar fibre, Cocos nucifera sheath, ANOV

Design and materials development of automotive crash box: a review

Recent interest by automotive manufacturing company is to develop a component, capable of enhancing safety features associated with lightweight materials such as using aluminum and composites. The use of aluminum metal matrix composites (MMC) and composite materials improve the performance of an automotive crash box due to their lightweight. Automotive crash box is a component, equipped at the front end of a car, and is one of the most important devices for crash energy absorption. The review is mainly divided by two topics, i.e. design of geometry profiles and the crash box material advancements, both geometry and material properties would influence the efficiency of kinetic energy absorption during collision. This review benefits both academics and corporate sector as it outlines major lines of research in the crash box design. It discusses the results from 3D simulations up to laboratory experiments of crash box specimen and the effect of material selection to the characteristic of crash box device. The information from this paper should stimulate more research and more crash box design solutions to reduce fatal damage during collision in automotive industry

Impact damage detection and quantification in CFRP laminates; a precursor to machine learning

The main objective of this research is to detect and classify impact damage in structures made from composite materials. The material chosen for this research is a Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) composite with a MTM57 epoxy resin system. This material was fabricated to produce laminated plate specimens of 250 mm × 150 mm, each with three PZT sensors placed at different points in order to record the responses from impact events. An impact hammer was used to produce FRF and time data corresponding to undamaging impacts. To perform the damaging impact tests, an instrumented drop test machine was used and the impact energy was set to range from 2.6J to 41.72J. The signals captured from each specimen were recorded in a data acquisition system for evaluation and the impacted specimens were X-rayed to evaluate the damage areas. As a precursor to the application of machine learning, a number of univariate features for damage identification were investigated

Identification of impact damage in CRRP laminates using the NDT approach

The motivation for this work is to identify impact damage in structures made from composite material. The composite material chosen for this research was Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer (CFRP) prepreg with a MTM57 epoxy resin system with CF2900 fabric. This material was fabricated to produce laminated plate specimens of 250 mm × 150 mm with 11, 12 and 13 layers of thickness. PZT sensors were placed at three different points on each of the plate specimens to record the responses from impact events. The impact test was performed using an instrumented drop test rig and the impact energies were set to range from 2.61 J to 41.72 J. All the signals captured from the impact test were recorded using a LMS data acquisition system and the impacted plate specimens were later examined using X-rays to evaluate the damage area. The correlation between the damage area in terms of the impact energy and the force detected is presented and discussed

Characterization of silane treated Malaysian Yankee Pineapple AC6 leaf fiber (PALF) towards industrial applications

This research studied the effects of silane treatment at different soaking time: 1, 3, 5 h,on the properties of new variant Yankee’s Pineapple AC6 leaf fiber (PALF). The propertiesof untreated and treated PALF was evaluated through several testing. The Si element wasfound on all treated fiber’s surface through Energy-Dispersive X-ray, while significant peakswere clearly seen for these treated fibers at 1317.81 and 1100 cm−1by Fourier TransformInfrared Spectroscopy. X-Ray Diffractor analyses showed small changes on the crystallinityof all treated fiber disregards the treatment and soaking time as compared to untreatedfiber. Improvement on the degradation temperature of all treated fibers to 360◦C from 340◦C was seen from the thermogravimetric analysis. Maximum surface roughness and tensilestrength were found for treated fibers at 3 h soaking time by atomic force microscope andsingle fiber testing respectively. The analyses suggested the potential Yankee’s PALF to beused in composites for various industrial applications

Characterization of Lignocellulosic Biomass from Malaysian’s Yankee Pineapple AC6 Toward Composite Application

The aim of this paper is to study the properties of the newly Malaysian pineapple variety, namely, Yankee pineapple’s leaf fibers (PALF) biofillers in composite applications. The fibers were extracted from the leaves, which were currently being thrown away or burned down. Comprehensive characterization of Yankee’s PALF was carried out to determine its chemical composition, surface morphology, and mechanical, crystallinity, and thermal properties. The results showed that the fiber had a high thermal degradation of 340°C (34% yield). On top of that, the fiber surface elemental composition captures carbon (53.56%) which had the highest atomic percentage followed by oxygen (42.93%) and potassium (3.51%). In addition, the fiber had a rough external surface observed through atomic force microscope analysis, resulting in good compatibility with the matrix polymer. The crystal index of fiber and its size give 55.22% and 2.17-nm values, respectively. Furthermore, 40 mm gauge length of single fiber had the highest tensile strength, which is 420.3 MPa compared to other values of the gauge length

Flexural, Dynamic and Thermo-Mechanical Analysis of Pineapple Leaf Fiber/Epoxy Composites

The properties of pineapple leaf fiber composites drawn from the vastly untapped Yankee pineapple plant variant were tested in this study. The properties of silane treated (T-PALFC) and untreated (UT-PALFC) samples were evaluated using flexural testing, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), and thermomechanical analysis (TMA). In this study, the T-PALFC sample was specifically treated in silane for 3 hours. The results show that the bending strength is improved by up to 97% in PALF composite compared to epoxy composite.The DMA results show that the UT-PALFC possess 7.1% higher storage modulus than T-PALFC, indicating untreated fiber attribute to high dynamic property in composite. The TMA finding shows the sequence of linear coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) as follows: T-PALFC > Neat epoxy > UT-PALFC. Furthermore, this research shows T-PALFC displayed lower properties compared to UT-PALFC because the composite had low cross-linked network. This is because T-PALFC had low glass transition temperature, Tg as shown in tan delta curve and was further supported in differential scanning calorimetry analysis. Moreover, morphological analysis of the cross-section image of the T-PALFC shows the existence of a wide gap between the PALF and the matrix compared to UT-PALFC

Characterization of silane treated Malaysian Yankee Pineapple AC6 leaf fiber (PALF) towards industrial applications

This research studied the effects of silane treatment at different soaking time: 1, 3, 5 h, on the properties of new variant Yankee’s Pineapple AC6 leaf fiber (PALF). The properties of untreated and treated PALF was evaluated through several testing. The Si element was found on all treated fiber’s surface through Energy-Dispersive X-ray, while significant peaks were clearly seen for these treated fibers at 1317.81 and 1100 cm−1 by Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy. X-Ray Diffractor analyses showed small changes on the crystallinity of all treated fiber disregards the treatment and soaking time as compared to untreated fiber. Improvement on the degradation temperature of all treated fibers to 360 °C from 340 °C was seen from the thermogravimetric analysis. Maximum surface roughness and tensile strength were found for treated fibers at 3 h soaking time by atomic force microscope and single fiber testing respectively. The analyses suggested the potential Yankee’s PALF to be used in composites for various industrial applications