Investigation On Tensile And Hardness Properties Of Novel Hybrid Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch/ Kenaf Reinforced High Density Polyethylene Composite For Automotive Application

Woi, Kah Wei (2017) Investigation On Tensile And Hardness Properties Of Novel Hybrid Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch/ Kenaf Reinforced High Density Polyethylene Composite For Automotive Application. Project Report. UTeM, Melaka, Malaysia. (Submitted)

Text (24 Pages) Investigation On Tensile And Hardness Properties Of Novel Hybrid Oil Palm Empty Fruit Bunch_Kenaf Reinforced High Density Polyethylene Composite For Automotive Application.pdf - Submitted Version Download (347kB)

Abstract

Natural fibre composites (NFC) is currently being applied as substitute material for synthetic composites especially in automotive application. Oil palm empty fruit bunch (OPEFB) fibre is one of the potential source of reinforcement material for NFC, which offers low raw material cost for automotive application due to its abundance as major waste materials in Malaysia oil palm industry. However, OPEFB application is still limited due to the low structural performance of the fibres as compared to other type of natural fibre. Hybridization of OPEFB with other natural fibres is one of the alternative to compensate the drawback of OPEFB structural performance, while retaining balance to the overall material cost. In this research, a novel hybrid OPEFB and kenaf reinforced high density polyethylene (HDPE) composites was develop for automotive application. The aim of this research was to investigate the effect of tensile and hardness properties of novel hybrid OPEFB/kenaf reinforced HDPE composite at varying OPEFB fibre loadings. All samples were prepared at fix fibre to matrix ratio of 40:60 wt%. Meanwhile, the OPEFB/kenaf fibre loadings ratio were varied 40/0, 10/30, 20/20, 10/30 and 0/40 wt%. The fibres were first crushed and sieved to size between 1 t0 5 mm. Hybrid short fibers were later mixed with HDPE using compounding and formed into thin plates using hot compression moulding process. Finally, the samples were cut to size and tested in accordance to the ASTM D2240 for the hardness test. The Shore-D hardness values of the samples were later converted into tensile modulus using theoretical method. Based on the result of hardness and approximate tensile modulus, the hybrid composite samples of 30 wt% Kenaf + 10wt% OPEFB fibre loadings showed the highest hardness property at 73.77 HD or 32.79 N, with approximate tensile modulus of 335.24 MPa. The 30/10 hybrid formulation was able to increase approximately 1.65 times tensile modulus as compared to pure OPEFB reinforced HDPE composites. The findings revealed potential success of hybridizing OPEFB with kenaf to improve the structural performance of OPEFB thermoplastic composites, especially for automotive structural application.

Actions (login required)

View Item