Development and properties of composite cement reinforced coconut fiber with the addition of fly ash

<p>The addition of 15 wt. % of coconut fiber has shown lowest value of density (1735 kg/m³) while reference samples show both lowest values in moisture content (3.64 %) and water absorption (0.79 %) compared to cement reinforced coconut fiber composite. Cement reinforced with 9 wt. % coconut fiber composite gave a better mechanical properties compared to others with highest values in compressive strength (58.98 MPa) and MOR (15.81 MPa). From this research, it was found that the coconut fiber can be used as reinforcement and fly ash can be applied as a substitution of sand in the development of coconut fiber based-green composite. Increasing content of coconut fiber will increase the compressive strength and modulus of rupture until some optimum composition (9 wt. % of coconut fiber).<br></p><p>Full paper can be downloaded via below arXiv URL.</p

Comparison of dynamic mechanical properties of non-superheated and superheated A357 alloys

<p>The influence of superheat treatment on the microstructure and dynamic mechanical properties of A357 alloys has been investigated. The study of microstructure was performed by optical microscope. Dynamic mechanical properties (storage modulus, loss modulus and damping capacity) were measured by the dynamic mechanical analyzer (DMA). Microstructure showed coarser and angular eutectic Si particles with larger α-Al dendrites in non-superheated A357 alloy. In contrast, finer and rounded eutectic Si particles together with smaller and preferred oriented α-Al dendrites have been observed in superheated A357 alloy. Dynamic mechanical properties showed an increasing trend of loss modulus and damping capacity meanwhile a decreasing trend of storage modulus at elevated temperatures for superheated and non-superheated A357 alloys. The high damping capacity of superheated A357 has been ascribed to the grain boundary damping at elevated temperatures.</p><p>A full paper can be downloaded via below arXiv URL. </p

Effects of Rolling Deformation and Annealing Treatment on Damping Capacity of 1200 Aluminium Alloy

Annealing treatment is an important step of rolling deformation that contributes to microstructural evolution and leads to the significant changes in damping capacity. Damping capacities were analyzed in the parallel to rolling direction at 1 and 10 Hz respectively. It was found that severe plastic deformation at 40 percent reduction has lower damping capacity compared to that of 30 percent and 20 percent reductions respectively. The microstructural results show that the grains of as rolled alloys were changed to almost equiaxed structures after a rolling reduction at 40 percent reduction.<div><br></div><div>Full paper can be downloaded via below arXiv URL.</div

Digital Presence of Academic Scholars: A Case of Universiti Teknologi MARA, Perlis Branch, Malaysia

<p><i>The advent of Internet has triggered academia to play important roles in scholarly publication activities leading to the use of academic profiling sites for researchers to exchange and share research ideas. However, several studies have claimed that many of the academic scholars especially in Malaysia have remained conservative and have refused to fully acknowledge the real potential of this new gadget. Since there are few written papers on online visibility in Malaysia particularly in academic scholars’ context, the study aims to highlight the extent of online visibility among academic researchers in Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM), Perlis Branch. By examining five common basic online profiling sites (i.e. ResearchGate, Academia, Google Scholar, ResearcherID and ORCID), it was found that only 31.4% of researchers at UiTM, Perlis Branch had at least one profile, the Faculty of Applied Sciences and the Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences were the top two online profiling site users and Google Scholar was the most widely used platform. In terms of the institutional position, Senior Lecturers appeared to be the top users of profiling sites compared to Associate Professors and Lecturers. The implications of these findings were discussed. </i></p