Natural fibres have good weight-to-strength ratio which has made it a material of interest for scientists and engineers. However, the major drawback for outdoor application of natural fibres is its hydrophilic nature. In this study, attempt was made to render bamboo fibre hydrophobic through acetylation with acetic anhydride at room temperature. The functional water absorption properties were studied and the acetylation parameters, such as chemical dosage and acetylation time, were optimised. Taguchi Orthogonal Array was used for the experimental design. Based on the Taguchi design, a regression equation was generated which served as an objective function for Genetic Algorithm. Acetylation reduced the percentage water absorption of Bambusa Vulgaris fibre from 196.4% in un-acetylated fibre down to 45% in acetylated fibres within the feasible design space. The optimal parameter setting generated with genetic algorithm is 15% acetic acid concentration, 50minutes of time soaked in acetic acid, 5% acetic anhydride concentration and 30 minutes time soaked in acetic anhydride. Under the optimum condition, the percentage water absorption was 44%. A confirmation experiment validated the effectiveness of the Genetic Algorithm result.
In this study, rubber seed/shea butter oil was used to formulate core oil. The formulated core oil was characterised. D-optimal mixture design was used for multi response optimisation of the functional properties of rubber seed-shea butter coil oil. Desirable values for some responses might be obtained from a factor combination while for others responses not so desirable values. Through multiple response optimisations, a factor setting that gives the desirable values for all responses was obtained. The selected optimum mixture setting for the formulated core oil is 65.937% Rubber seed and 34.063% Shea butter oil at desirability of 0.924. Under the optimum condition the functional properties of the core oil was found to be 39.57KN/M2, 626.85KN/M2, 36.63KN/M2, 593.906KN/M2, 412.605 and 167.309s for Green Compressive Strength, Dry Compressive Strength, Green Tensile Strength, Dry Tensile Strength, Permeability and Collapsibility respectively. The optimum conditions were validated with less than 0.2% error. The functional properties of the formulated core oil was compared to the functional properties of linseed core oil. It was found that rubber seed-shea butter core oil can be used for producing cores suitable for Aluminium casting.
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