The physical characteristics of composite bone scaffold fabricated from OPEFB-CMC, Chitosan and HA

Oil Palm is the largest agriculture in Malaysia and amongst the world. Unfortunately, difficulty occurs in which oil palm disposals lead to unpleasant contamination and bad scenery. However the combination of oil palm empty fruit bunch – carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC), Chitosan (CS) and hydroxylapatite (HA), turns the composite into biodegradable bone graft as known as porous composite. It was produced with lots of pores through co-solution and lyophilization method. Pores process is important for tissue engineering development but a little bit crucial to achieve ideal properties. An ideal bone scaffold should contain more pores for better cell proliferation and as nutrient carrier. Unfortunately, too many pores may lead to the weaknesses of the scaffold. The research had examined samples through compression tests for strength. It turns out that OPEFB-CMC, a derivation material from EFB, together with HA and CS had an increment in their toughness compared to previous research using only HA and CS. This paper intentionally presents detailed evaluation about bone scaffold fabricated from waste product as the polymer, with HA and CS for better biodegradable bone implant

Experimental studies on impact damage location in composite aerospace structures using genetic algorithms and neural networks

Impact damage detection in composite structures has gained a considerable interest in many engineering areas. The capability to detect damage at the early stages reduces any risk of catastrophic failure. This paper compares two advanced signal processing methods for impact location in composite aircraft structures. The first method is based on a modified triangulation procedure and Genetic Algorithms whereas the second technique applies Artificial Neural Networks. A series of impacts is performed experimentally on a composite aircraft wing�box structure instrumented with low-profile, bonded piezoceramic sensors. The strain data are used for learning in the Neural Network approach. The triangulation procedure utilises the same data to establish impact velocities for various angles of strain wave propagation. The study demonstrates that both approaches are capable of good impact location estimates in this complex structure

THE EFFECT OF COCONUT COIR FIBER POWDER CONTENT AND HARDENER WEIGHT FRACTIONS ON MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF AN EPR-174 EPOXY RESIN COMPOSITE

The development of composite materials is increasingly widespread, which require superior mechanical properties. From many studies, it is found that the mechanical properties of composite materials are influenced by various factors, including the reinforcement content, both in the form of fibers and particle powder. However, those studies have not investigated the effect of the hardener weight fraction on the mechanical properties of resin composite materials. Even though its function as a hardener is likely to affect its mechanical properties, it might obtain the optimum composition of the reinforcing content and hardener fraction to get the specific mechanical properties. This study examines the effect of hardener weight fraction combined with fiber powder content on mechanical properties of EPR-174 epoxy resin matrix composite and determines the optimum of Them. The research was conducted by testing a sample of composite matrix resin material reinforced with coconut fiber powder. The Powder content was made in 3 levels, i.e.: 6%, 8%, and 10%. While the hardener fraction of resin was made in 3 levels, i.e.: 0.4, 0.5, and 0.6. The test results showed that pure resin had the lowest impact strength of 1.37 kJ/m2. The specimen with a fiber powder content of 6% has the highest impact strength i.e.: 4.92 kJ/m2. The hardener fraction of 0.5 has the highest impact strength i.e.: 4.55 kJ/m2. The fiber powder content of 8% produced the highest shear strength i.e.: 1.00 MPa. Meanwhile, the hardener fraction of 0.6 has the highest shear strength i.e.: 2.03 MPa

The effect of pretreatment powder using ball mill and ultrasound on the properties of single cell solid oxide fuel cell

Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is currently popular due to its capability to convert hydrogen into electricity directly from oxidizing hydrogen fuel. The SOFC is one of the expected renewable energy devices and green technology in the future because of less carbon dioxide production and no pollutant product. Performance of SOFC was influenced by morphology and microstructure of the material, starting particle size and particle’s distribution. This paper addresses the comparative evaluation of using pretreatment NiO/YSZ powder using ball mill and ultrasound processess on the performance of a single cell SOFC. The performance of solid oxide fuel cell was evaluated using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-Ray diffraction (XRD) and impedance spectroscopy, measured at room temperature. The results indicate that the treatment using ultrasound process is better than ball mill process due the total resistance is smaller and distribution particle is more homogenous

Mechanical and thermal properties of polypropylene/clay roof tiles waste (PP/CRTW) composites

The usage of clay roof tiles waste as a filler in composite was studied. Polypropylene (PP) composites of clay roof tiles wastes (CRTW) for low strength applications were prepared at filler contents 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25% and 30%. Unfilled PP used as reference sample. The clay roof tiles wastes were prepared to achieve 45 micron in size to mix with PP. The composites were mixed using double hot roll mill mixer at temperature 190°C. The final products of the composites prepared were in a granul form which undergone granulation process after mixing. Injection moulding process also conducted to get the composites in dumbbell shape. The mechanical and thermal properties of the composites prepared were determined. Results showed that the CRTW improved the hardness properties and melt density with the increases in the filler content. On the other hand melt flow index was however observed to decrease with increases in the filler content. For the thermal properties at maximum loading of filler content it shows the maximum temperature of weight loss rate, Tpeak and the onset decomposition temperature, Tonset higher compared to unfilled PP. The tensile properties for ultimate tensile strength, elongation at break, break strain percentage, maximum load and toughness were however also observed to decrease with increases in the filler content. FTIR results showed the main functional group of PP as a dominant constituent in PP/CRTW composites still remained at the wave number around 2917~2950 cm-1 at all filler content

A novel approach for bone scaffold from oil palm empty fruit bunch cellulose phosphate / glass material

Current trend has demonstrated the implementation of natural polymers as alternative materials in various engineering applications including biomaterials and biomedical applications. This paper reviews the potential of Cellulose Phosphate derived from Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch (OPEFB-CP) as a biomedical material. OPEFB-CP will act as reinforcement to glass materials in fabricating good and flexible scaffold composite materials. A 3-dimensional scaffold composite material comprised of the cellulose phosphate and glass material was produced by using a sol-gel technique. The composite biomaterial is expected to have degraded together as one material

The effect of heat treatment on compression strength of recycled AA6061 aluminium chips

Solid state recycling aluminium AA6061 chips by cold compaction is a technique that used lower energy consumption and operating cost compared to the conventional recycling technique by casting. This research is to investigate physical characteristics of the milled recycling aluminium AA6061 according to the change of the time (heat treatment) using the high speed milling process and followed by a cold press forging process. Physical property of the recycled aluminium chip of AA6061 were studied. On the other hand, the results were showing that the porosity and density, and compression is correlated. At 8 hours on variable of quenching have a best value porosity (1.95%), density (2.55 g/cm3 ) and compression strength (315.19 MPa). While for the variable of aging, the best value of density (2.54 g/cm3 ) and compression strength (280.76 MPa) is at 10 hours. On porosity the best value is at 8 hours (2.79 %). It must be considered to the density and compression strength. For that, 10 hours were chosen for the best aging time. It can be concluded; the best quenching time is 8 hours and aging time is 10 hours

Crushing Performances of Axially Compressed Woven Kenaf Fiber Reinforced Cylindrical Composites

This paper presents experimental investigations on the crushing performances of axially compressed woven kenaf fibre reinforced cylindrical composites. Based on the literature survey, there are tremendous amount of work are available on the crushing performances regardless whether the composite contained synthetic or natural fibers. However, lack number of work found in discussing the crushing capability for the composite tubes fabricated using woven kenaf mat reinforced composites. Kenaf fibre in the form of yarn is weaved into a woven mat before it is submerged into a resin bath prior the mats are shaped to form a cylindrical tube. There are two important parameters are used such as number of layers and fiber orientations. The composite tubes are then quasi-statically compressed to obtain the force-displacement curves. Energy absorption capability and other crashworthiness parameters are calculated and discussed in term of number of layers and fiber orientations. According to the results, it is found that both number of layer and fiber orientations played an important role in an elastic region or the first region. On the other hand, in the second stage, it is insignificantly affected the plateau stage where the curves seemed not much different

Effect of silica (SiO2) filler on thermal stability of polysiloxane composites

Thermal stability of composites are influenced by the types and properties of filler used. In this study Silica (SiO2) namely CS was used to improve the thermal stability of Polysiloxane (PoS) panel. The PoS/CS composites were fabricated by mixing PoS and CS with filler loading of 2wt% to 12 wt%. PoS/CS composites are then cast using close mold technique and cured at room temperature (RT), 65˚C and 100˚C. The CS were characterized for X-Ray Diffraction (XRD), X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF), and Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) technique. The thermal stability of PoS/CS composites were identified via Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA). It was found that, CS improved the thermal stability of PoS by increased decomposition temperature and decreased relative mass loss percentage. CS as a filler, replaced and reduced the hydroxyl group in the composites panel to significantly improved the thermal stability. Hence, the good thermal stability of CS also helps to improve PoS composites thermal properties. The interference of hydroxyl crosslink during curing was also found to affect the thermal stability. Thus, the high temperature curing (65˚C and 100˚C) were indeed unstable due to disruption of cross link process and thus affect the filler dispersion and cause aggregations. PoS/CS/RT composites were found to show the stable and linear profile of thermal stability compare to PoS/CS/65˚C and PoS/CS/100 ˚C. Thus the thermal stability of polysiloxane had improved by using CS as a filler and cured at RT