Impact damage resistance and post impact tolerance of optimum banana-pseudo stem fiber reinforced epoxy sandwich structures

Banana fiber has a high potential for use in fiber composite structures due to its promise as a polymer reinforcement. However, it has poor bonding characteristics with the matrixes due to hydrophobic-hydrophilic incompatibility, inconsistency in blending weight ratio, and fiber length instability. In this study, the optimal conditions for a banana/epoxy composite as determined previously were used to fabricate a sandwich structure where carbon/Kevlar twill plies acted as the skins. The structure was evaluated based on two experimental tests: low-velocity impact and compression after impact (CAI) tests. Here, the synthetic fiber including Kevlar, carbon, and glass sandwich structures were also tested for comparison purposes. In general, the results showed a low peak load and larger damage area in the optimal banana/epoxy structures. The impact damage area, as characterized by the dye penetration, increased with increasing impact energy. The optimal banana composite and synthetic fiber systems were proven to offer a similar residual strength and normalized strength when higher impact energies were applied. Delamination and fracture behavior were dominant in the optimal banana structures subjected to CAI testing. Finally, optimization of the compounding parameters of the optimal banana fibers improved the impact and CAI properties of the structure, making them comparable to those of synthetic sandwich composites

Microstrip to Parallel-Strip Nonlinear Transition Balun with Stubs and DGS for UWB Dipole Antenna

Three tapered baluns with nonlinear transition are developed for harmonic suppression in dipole antenna. The first balun consists of an exponential profile with the size of a quarter–wavelength for both the height and width with a wideband characteristic. However, for some applications such as narrowband harmonic suppression antennas and wideband-to-narrowband reconfigurable antennas, the suppression of higher operating band is desired. By employing stubs-filter and a defected ground structure (DGS), two narrowband tapered baluns are produced. They are named as an exponential balun-stub and an exponential balun-DGS, respectively, that operate from 1 to 2 GHz. A simulated and measured results that based on the reflection coefficient is found to be better than -10 dB from 1 to 2 GHz. The employment of the stubs and DGS have enabled these baluns to have the capability to reject the unwanted higher frequency band from 2.0 to 10 GHz. Finally, the proposed baluns are employed as a feeding circuit for an ultra wideband (UWB) circular dipole antenna that produces a reasonable outcome

Study on impact properties of arenga pinnata fibre reinforced epoxy composites

Natural fibre composites have gained their importance in the recently in some non-structural and semi-structural components in engineering due to their acceptable strength and stiffness in addition to their low cost, abundance and renewable. A study on impact properties of arenga pinnata fibre reinforced epoxy composites is presented in this paper

The mechanical performance of sugar palm fibres (Ijuk) reinforced phenolic composites

Sugar palm fibres are one of the natural fibres which have many features and need further study to understand their properties. The aim of this work is to investigate the flexural, compressive and impact properties of sugar palm fibres reinforced phenolic composites. Sugar palm fibres were used as a filler (particle size 150 μm) and with loading of 0, 10, 20, 30, and 40 vol.%. The fibres were treated by sea water and then fabricated into composites by hot press technique. Flexural, compressive, and impact tests were carried out as per ASTM D790, ASTM D695-08a, and ASTM D256 standards, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to investigate the morphology and the interfacial bonding of the fibres-matrix in composites. The results show that the mechanical properties of the composites improve with the incorporation of fibres. The composite of 30 vol.% particle loading exhibit optimum values which are 32.23 MPa, 61.66 MPa, and 4.12 kJ/m2 for flexural, compressive, and impact strength, respectively. This was because good compatibility of fibre-matrix bonding. Consequently, sugar palm fibre is one of the prospective fibres and could be used as a potential resource to reinforcement polymer composite

Harmonic Suppression Dual-band Dipole Antenna with Parasitic Elements and a Stub

A dual-band harmonic suppression dipole antenna suitable for energy harvesting system is presented in this paper. A linear dipole with two parasitic elements is designed and fabricated with a capability to eliminate the harmonic of higher order modes. At first, the antenna resonates at 900 MHz and 2.7 GHz. Therefore, a parasitic element is added into each of the dipole’s arm to tune the second frequency band to 2.4 GHz to fit into wireless application. However, the presence of two parasitic elements has generated an unwanted harmonic at 4.0 GHz. Thus, a stub has been integrated into the antenna’s terminal (feed line) to suppress the 4.0 GHz frequency. This technique is suitable for developing a multiband antenna with harmonic suppression. The antenna is fabricated on a FR-4 board with the size of 72×152 mm2 which operates efficiently at 0.8 GHz and 2.4 GHz which is suitable for wireless communication applications. The prototype can suppress the undesired harmful harmonics present within the frequency range of 3 to 5 GHz. The antenna has a good potential to be used in a rectenna system with a dual-band frequency operation but with better performance. Simulation and measurement results obtained are in a good agreement, which have confirmed the proposed design concept

Effect of fiber content and their hybridization on bending and torsional strength of hybrid epoxy composites reinforced with carbon and sugar palm fibers

This study aims to investigate the effect of fiber hybridization of sugar palm yarn fiber with carbon fiber reinforced epoxy composites. In this work, sugar palm yarn composites were reinforced with epoxy at varying fiber loads of 5, 10, 15, and 20 wt % using the hand lay-up process. The hybrid composites were fabricated from two types of fabric: sugar palm yarn of 250 tex and carbon fiber as the reinforcements, and epoxy resin as the matrix. The ratios of 85: 15 and 80: 20 were selected for the ratio between the matrix and reinforcement in the hybrid composite. The ratios of 50: 50 and 60: 40 were selected for the ratio between sugar palm yarn and carbon fiber. The mechanical properties of the composites were characterized according to the flexural test (ASTM D790) and torsion test (ASTM D5279). It was found that the increasing flexural and torsion properties of the non-hybrid composite at fiber loading of 15 wt % were 7.40% and 75.61%, respectively, compared to other fiber loading composites. For hybrid composites, the experimental results reveal that the highest flexural and torsion properties were achieved at the ratio of 85/15 reinforcement and 60/40 for the fiber ratio of hybrid sugar palm yarn/carbon fiber-reinforced composites. The results from this study suggest that the hybrid composite has a better performance regarding both flexural and torsion properties. The different ratio between matrix and reinforcement has a significant effect on the performance of sugar palm composites. It can be concluded that this type of composite can be utilized for beam, construction applications, and automotive components that demand high flexural strength and high torsional forces

Microstrip to parallel-strip nonlinear transition balun with stubs and DGS for UWB dipole antenna

Three tapered baluns with nonlinear transition are developed for harmonic suppression in dipole antenna. The first balun consists of an exponential profile with the size of a quarter-wavelength for both the height and width with a wideband characteristic. However, for some applications such as narrowband harmonic suppression antennas and wideband-to-narrowband reconfigurable antennas, the suppression of higher operating band is desired. By employing stubs-filter and a defected ground structure (DGS), two narrowband tapered baluns are produced. They are named as an exponential balun-stub and an exponential balun-DGS, respectively, that operate from 1 to 2 GHz. A simulated and measured results that based on the reflection coefficient is found to be better than -10 dB from 1 to 2 GHz. The employment of the stubs and DGS have enabled these baluns to have the capability to reject the unwanted higher frequency band from 2.0 to 10 GHz. Finally, the proposed baluns are employed as a feeding circuit for an ultra wideband (UWB) circular dipole antenna that produces a reasonable outcome

Evaluation On Compression Properties Of Different Shape And Perforated rHDPE In Concrete Structures

The purpose of this study was to develop a concrete structure by incorporating waste HDPE plastic as the main reinforcement material and cement as the matrix via standard casting technique. There are eight different shapes of rHDPE reinforcing structure were used to investigate the compression properties of produced concrete composites. Experimental result shown that the highest shape in compressive strength of rHDPE reinforcing structure were the concrete with the addition of X-perforated beam (18.22 MPa), followed by X-beam (17.7 MPa), square perforated tube (17.54 MPa), round tube (17.42 MPa) and round perforated tube (16.69 MPa). In terms of their compressive behavior, the average concrete containing rHDPE reinforcement was successfully improved by 6 % of the mechanical characteristic compared to control concrete. It is shown that the addition of waste plastic as reinforcement structure can provide better compressive strength based on their shape and pattern respectively

The influence of parenting style towards secondary schools' delinquency behaviour

This research was carried out in order to study the problem behaviour among delinquent secondary school students. Two main focus of the study were the delinquency among students and the parenting style practiced by the parents. The focus of the behaviours of the study was physical, verbal, sexual and anti-social which were committed by the students. The parenting style was explored by using Diana Baumrind Parenting Style Model. 354 students across Johor Bahru, Malaysia were involved in the study. They were students who have been committed to delinquency behaviours at school. The data was collected by using Parenting Style Questionnaire. The SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Science) version 22 was used to analysethe data by generating related analysis such percentages, anova and analysis of regression. The research finding shows that most of the parents practiced the authoritative approach in educating their children at home. However, further analysis shows that there are differences between races as far as the authoritative concern to be practiced regardless how many siblings the family have. Analysis of regression also shows that the parenting style alone cannot be considered as predictors to the delinquency behaviours of the students at school. It is hoped that these findings informed the related parties to be more cautious in educating the children especially at home