Dandi Bachtiar

Tensile Properties of Hybrid Sugar Palm/Kenaf Fibre Reinforced Polypropylene Composites

Study on hybridization of two types of natural fibres reinforced thermoplastic composites was an alternative option in research on natural composites. This paper presents the investigation on tensile properties of combining sugar palm and kenaf fibres reinforced polypropylene composites. The hybrid composites were prepared with different amounts of fibres (i.e. 10%, 20% and 30% by weight percent) while the ratios between sugar palm and kenaf fibre are 30:70, 50:50 and 70:30. The composites have been fabricated using melt mixer technique and followed by compression molding process. The specimens were cut according ASTM Standard D638 for conducting the tensile testing. The results shown that tensile strength of composites tend to decreased when the content of loading fibres increased. Among the composites with different ratios, the hybrid composites that contain more kenaf fibres exhibit the higher value in tensile strength than the composites that contain more sugar palm fibres.

Tensile Properties of Pineapple Leaf Fibre Reinforced Unsaturated Polyester Composites

In recent years natural fibres such as sisal, jute, kenaf, pineapple leaf and banana fibres appear to be the outstanding materials which come as the viable and abundant substitute for the expensive and non-renewable synthethic fibre. This paper investigate the effect of fibre length and fibre content on the tensile properties of pineapple leaf fibre (PALF) reinforced unsaturated polyester (UP) composites. PALF as reinforcement agent will be employed with UP to form composite material specimens. The various of fiber length (<0.5, 0.5–1, and 1-2 mm) and fibre content (0, 5, 10 and 15 % by volume) in UP composite have been studied. The fabrication of PALF/UP composites used hand lay-up process, and the specimens for tensile test prepared follow the ASTM D3039. The result obtained from this study show that the 1-2 mm fibre length has higher tensile strength (42 MPa) and tensile modulus (1344 MPa) values compared to fibre length of <0.5 mm (30 MPa and 981 MPa) and 0.5-1 mm (35.40 MPa and 1020 MPa) respectively. Meanwhile, for the effect of various fibre content in study has shown that the increase of fibre content has decreased in tensile strength dan tensile modulus of composites. The increase of fibre content due to poor interfacial bonding and poor wetting of the fibre by unsaturated polyster. The treatment of natural fibre are suggested in order to improve the interfacial adhesion between natural fibre and the unsaturated polyester.

Mechanical Properties of Mengkuang Leave Fiber Reinforced Low Density Polyethylene Composites

Mengkuang (Pandanus tectorius) grows abundantly in the coastal region of Southeast Asia. To date, the application of mengkuang leaves fiber (MLF) as reinforcement in polymer matrix is still limited in literature making its potential as reinforced material remain unknown. Therefore, this chapter focuses on the tensile properties, flexural, and impact properties of (MLF)/LDPE composite fabricated through the hot compression machine. In this study, the effect of volume fraction, fiber length of MLF was investigated. Two main groups of MLF/LDPE composite samples were established. The first group consists of different fiber mesh size range (<0.5 mm, 0.5–8 mm, and 1–2 mm) with constant volume fraction (10 wt%) while in another group volume fraction is varying (10, 20, and 30 wt%) but constant fiber length (<0.5 mm). Further investigation was conducted by treating the MLF/LDPE composite of volume fraction 30 wt% and fiber length 0.5 mm with maleic anhydride polyethylene (MAPE) with loading content of 2, 4, and 6 wt% The surface fracture of each samples was analyzed via scanning electron microscope. The result from both groups is compared to the pure LDPE. From the result, it can be concluded that both volume fraction and fiber length do not improve tensile properties and impact properties of MLF/LDPE composite. However, the flexural strength of MLF/LDPE increased significantly. A similar result was obtained when MLF/LDPE composite was treated with the MAPE.

Specific Properties of Novel Two-Dimensional Square Honeycomb Composite Structures

Hexagonal honeycomb cores have found extensive applications particularly in the aerospace and naval industries. In view of the recent interest in novel strong and lightweight core architectures, square honeycomb cores were manufactured and tested under uniform lateral compression. A slotting technique has been used to manufacture the square honeycomb cores based on three different materials; glass fibre-reinforced plastic (GFRP), carbon fibre-reinforced plastic (CFRP) and self-reinforced polypropylene (SRPP). As semi-rigid polyvinyl chloride (PVC) foam was placed in each of unit cells to further stiffen the core structure. The core then was bonded to two skins to form a sandwich structure. The compressive responses of the sandwich structures were measured as a function of relative density. In this paper, particular focus is placed on examining the compression strength and energy absorption characteristics of the square honeycombs with and without the additional foam core. Comparisons in terms of specific strength and specific energy absorption have shown that the CFRP core offers excellent properties. The presence of the foam core significantly increases the energy absorption capability of overall structure and the SRPP core could potentially be used as an alternative lightweight core material in recyclable sandwich structures.