Abstract. The focus of this study was to obtain the optimum alkaline treatment for pineapple leaf fibre and its effect on the mechanical and chemical properties, surface topography, heat resistivity, as well as its interfacial bonding with epoxy matrix. There were 6 different treatment conditions set for the fibre. The morphology of a single fibre observed under the Digital Image Analyzer indicates slight reduction in fibre diameter with increasing NaOH concentration. The Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) results show the deteriorating effect of alkali, which can be seen from the removal of impurities and increase in surface roughness. The mechanical analysis indicates that 6% NaOH treatment with 3-hour immersion period yielded the highest tensile strength. The adhesion between single fibre and epoxy resin was analysed through the micro-droplet test. Alkaline treatment results in better mechanical bonding between fibre and epoxy resin. It was found that 6% NaOH treatment with 1-hour immersion yielded highest interfacial shear stress. However, as NaOH concentration went above 6 %, the fibre started to show reduction in mechanical properties, as well as fibre-matrix interlocking. The TGA analysis implies that alkaline treatment improved the thermal stability and heat resistivity of the fibre.
The paper presents a theoretical framework on the moderating effect of trust in authority on the relationship between tax rates, penalty, detection probability, cost of compliance, royalty rates, environmental regulations, and petroleum profit tax compliance. The objective of the proposed framework is to expand the Allingham and Sandmo (1972) model of tax compliance by adding two more predictor variables relevant to the oil and gas industry (royalty rates and environmental regulations), and moderating variable (trust) to better explain the relationship. Allingham and Sandmo (1972) model received a lot of criticisms for not considering other non-human factors that can help in determining taxpayers' compliance behavior, hence the expansion of the model to include new variables, purely non-human factors which are relevant to the industry in question. A thorough search of the following databases: Scopus database, Web of Science, Emerald, Google Scholar, among others was conducted to come up with the relevant and related literature on the subject matter. Providing empirical evidence through validation of this framework would have important implications for policymakers in host oil and gas producing countries, oil and gas operators, the deterrence theory as well as future research.
This paper investigates the fabrication of hybrid biocomposites of Pineapple Leaf Fibre (PALF)-glass-vinyl ester (VE) utilizing automated spray up process. This method can be applied for components in interior aircraft and automotive industry. In this study, the manual chop spray gun is integrated with industrial robotic arm to produce random discontinuous fibre composite (DFC) from PALF roving (273 tex) and vinyl ester resin. The characterization includes mechanical (tensile, and flexural test), thermal (DMA and TGA) and a morphological analysis (SEM) of the surface fractures from the tensile test samples. For each mechanical result, coefficient of variance (COV) is calculated to measure the variability of the mean distribution. The comparison is made among the glass (100% glass), PALF-vinyl ester (100% PALF), and glass-PALF-vinyl ester (PALF 50%, Glass 50%) hybrid biocomposites on the mechanical strength and consistency of the outcome. The result showed that hybridization increased the tensile strength by 171% compared to PALF-VE composite, reduced the composite density and increase thermal properties compared to PALF-VE and glass-VE composites.
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