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Mechanical Properties and Performance Evaluation of Polypropylene/Betel Nut Husk Composite

Composites existed because reinforcement helps to improve the properties of a matrix for various applications. Biocomposites are heavily studied as a greener alternative as natural fibers are used as reinforcement. Natural fibers are renewable, inexpensive, biodegradable and possess comparable stren...

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Main Author: Pian, Raffaella Cheau Mei
Format: Final Year Project
Language:English
Published: 2018
Online Access:http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/19285/1/Raffaella%20%2820262%29%20Dissertation.pdf
http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/19285/
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spelling my-utp-utpedia.192852019-06-11T10:28:30Z http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/19285/ Mechanical Properties and Performance Evaluation of Polypropylene/Betel Nut Husk Composite Pian, Raffaella Cheau Mei Composites existed because reinforcement helps to improve the properties of a matrix for various applications. Biocomposites are heavily studied as a greener alternative as natural fibers are used as reinforcement. Natural fibers are renewable, inexpensive, biodegradable and possess comparable strength to those of manmade fibers. Despite the ongoing studies on biocomposites, there are still many more unexplored alternatives of natural fibers that can be utilized as reinforcement especially those of which come from agricultural waste. In this project, betel nut husk fiber was used as the reinforcement for polypropylene matrix. It is a native fruit to Malaysia among few other tropical Asia countries. While studies were done to evaluate its husk fiber strength to be used as reinforcement, there were only very few studies done on betel nut husk fiber reinforced composite especially with thermoplastic matrix. Therefore, the objective of this project was to evaluate the effect of fiber-matrix composition on performance of the composites through the analysis of their mechanical properties which were tensile, flexural and impact properties. The compositions involved were 80/20 and 70/30 (Polypropylene/Betel nut husk fiber). Compounding of the materials were done using twin screw extruder and the test specimens were fabricated using injection moulding process. The results showed that tensile strength of the composite was slightly lower than the neat PP. However, improvement over 100% was evident in the tensile modulus. Fiber pull-outs were observed in the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images suggesting poor adhesion between the fiber and matrix. Flexural properties, on the other hand, increase by 28% and 44% for the strength and modulus, respectively. The impact strength decreased due to the nature of the reinforcement which was short fiber and also the increase in discontinuity of the matrix as the fiber loading increased. 2018-01 Final Year Project NonPeerReviewed application/pdf en http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/19285/1/Raffaella%20%2820262%29%20Dissertation.pdf Pian, Raffaella Cheau Mei (2018) Mechanical Properties and Performance Evaluation of Polypropylene/Betel Nut Husk Composite. UNSPECIFIED.
institution Universiti Teknologi Petronas
building UTP Resource Centre
collection Institutional Repository
continent Asia
country Malaysia
content_provider Universiti Teknologi Petronas
content_source UTP Electronic and Digitized Intellectual Asset
url_provider http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/
language English
description Composites existed because reinforcement helps to improve the properties of a matrix for various applications. Biocomposites are heavily studied as a greener alternative as natural fibers are used as reinforcement. Natural fibers are renewable, inexpensive, biodegradable and possess comparable strength to those of manmade fibers. Despite the ongoing studies on biocomposites, there are still many more unexplored alternatives of natural fibers that can be utilized as reinforcement especially those of which come from agricultural waste. In this project, betel nut husk fiber was used as the reinforcement for polypropylene matrix. It is a native fruit to Malaysia among few other tropical Asia countries. While studies were done to evaluate its husk fiber strength to be used as reinforcement, there were only very few studies done on betel nut husk fiber reinforced composite especially with thermoplastic matrix. Therefore, the objective of this project was to evaluate the effect of fiber-matrix composition on performance of the composites through the analysis of their mechanical properties which were tensile, flexural and impact properties. The compositions involved were 80/20 and 70/30 (Polypropylene/Betel nut husk fiber). Compounding of the materials were done using twin screw extruder and the test specimens were fabricated using injection moulding process. The results showed that tensile strength of the composite was slightly lower than the neat PP. However, improvement over 100% was evident in the tensile modulus. Fiber pull-outs were observed in the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images suggesting poor adhesion between the fiber and matrix. Flexural properties, on the other hand, increase by 28% and 44% for the strength and modulus, respectively. The impact strength decreased due to the nature of the reinforcement which was short fiber and also the increase in discontinuity of the matrix as the fiber loading increased.
format Final Year Project
author Pian, Raffaella Cheau Mei
spellingShingle Pian, Raffaella Cheau Mei
Mechanical Properties and Performance Evaluation of Polypropylene/Betel Nut Husk Composite
author_facet Pian, Raffaella Cheau Mei
author_sort Pian, Raffaella Cheau Mei
title Mechanical Properties and Performance Evaluation of Polypropylene/Betel Nut Husk Composite
title_short Mechanical Properties and Performance Evaluation of Polypropylene/Betel Nut Husk Composite
title_full Mechanical Properties and Performance Evaluation of Polypropylene/Betel Nut Husk Composite
title_fullStr Mechanical Properties and Performance Evaluation of Polypropylene/Betel Nut Husk Composite
title_full_unstemmed Mechanical Properties and Performance Evaluation of Polypropylene/Betel Nut Husk Composite
title_sort mechanical properties and performance evaluation of polypropylene/betel nut husk composite
publishDate 2018
url http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/19285/1/Raffaella%20%2820262%29%20Dissertation.pdf
http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/19285/
_version_ 1739832612867801088
score 13.211869

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