In this study, blends of biodegradable Poly (lactic acid) (PLA) and Polycaprolactone (PCL), were prepared using Hakee Rheomix and characterized for rheological , thermal, mechanical and viscoelastic properties. Morphology of tensile fractured surfaces was examined through scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The blends of PLA/PCL exhibited an increase in percentage of elongation, impact toughness, loss factor and decrease in strength and modulus, when compared to that of neat PLA. Among the various blend proportions considered in this work, 80/20% PLA/PCL blend exhibited the highest elongation and impact strength. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) showed the influence of PCL content on glass transition temperature (T g ), melting temperature and degree of crystallinity of PLA/PCL blends.

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High-density polyethylene (HDPE) pipes find versatile applicability for transportation of water, sewage and slurry from one place to another. Hence, these pipes undergo tremendous pressure by the fluid carried. The present work entails the optimization of the withstanding pressure of the HDPE pipes using Taguchi technique. The traditional heuristic methodology stresses on a trial and error approach and relies heavily upon the accumulated experience of the process engineers for determining the optimal process control parameters. This results in setting up of less-than-optimal values. Hence, there arouse a necessity to determine optimal process control parameters for the pipe extrusion process, which can ensure robust pipe quality and process reliability. In the proposed optimization strategy, the design of experiments (DoE) are conducted wherein different control parameter combinations are analyzed by considering multiple setting levels of each control parameter. The concept of signal-to-noise ratio (S/N ratio) is applied and ultimately optimum values of process control parameters are obtained as: pushing zone temperature of 166°C, Dimmer speed at 08 rpm, and Die head temperature to be 192°C. Confirmation experimental run is also conducted to verify the analysis and research result and values proved to be in synchronization with the main experimental findings and the withstanding pressure showed a significant improvement from 0.60 to 1.004 Mpa.

The aim of this paper is to investigate the mechanical properties of Banana-Pineapple natural fiber reinforced epoxy hybrid composites. The hybrid combination of fibers with various weight fractions i.e. (40/0, 30/10, 20/20, 10/30 and 0/40) are incorporated into the epoxy LY556 and HY951and hand layup technique is used for fabrication. Initially fibers are cut to a length of 5mm and weight percentagesare determined. Banana fiber was hybridized with Pineapple fiber. While overall fiber weight fraction was fixed as 0.4Wf. Tensile, Flexural and Impact specimens are prepared according to ASTM standards. The Dog-bone shaped specimens are prepared for tensile test. Tensile testing was conducted on 5 ton universal testing machine (FIE Make). Flat bar and V-notch shaped specimens are prepared for conducting Flexural, Impact tests.The results are compared with pure Banana and pure Pineapple. Tensile, Flexural and Impact properties of Hybrid Composites are improved as compared to pure composites. The interfacial relationships between the fiber and matrix, internal cracks, fiber pullout, fiber dispersion into the matrix and the inner surfaces of the specimens are examined through SEM analysis.

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