Mechanical properties of ukam, banana, sisal, coconut, hemp and E-glass fibre reinforced laminates were evaluated to assess the possibility of using it as new material in engineering applications. Samples were fabricated by the hand lay-up process (30:70 fibre and matrix ratio by weight) and the properties evaluated using the INSTRON material testing system. The mechanical properties were tested and showed that glass laminate has the maximum tensile strength of 63 MPa, bending strength of 0.5 MPa, compressive strength of 37.75 MPa and the impact strength of 17.82 J/m 2 . The ukam plant fibre laminate has the maximum tensile strength of 16.25 MPa and the impact strength of 9.8J/m among the natural fibres; the sisal laminate has the maximum compressive strength of 42 MPa and maximum bending strength of 0.0036 MPa among the natural fibres. Results indicated that natural fibres are of interest for low-cost engineering applications and can compete with artificial glass fibres (E-glass fibre) when a high stiffness per unit weight is desirable. Results also indicated that future research towards significant improvements in tensile and impact strength of these types of composites should focus on the optimisation of fibre strength rather than interfacial bond strength.
This study is focused on the development and characterization of a stir cast Al-Si alloy reinforced with titanium carbide nano-particles. The composite was developed using the stir casting method and the casted samples were prepared with TiC nano-particle at 0.4 (B1), 0.8 (B2), 1.2 (B3), 1.6 (B4) and 2.0 (B5) wt. % of the entire composition, as well as a control sample, and thereafter subjected to tensile and hardness tests. It was noticed that none of the samples at the chosen concentrations brought about a greater hardness value than that of the control sample (Sample A), however they all show a positive trend with an increase in the % wt. of reinforcement bringing about a possibility of increase in the hardness value. This suggests that a further increase above 2.0% of the reinforcement should bring about an increase in hardness above that of the base Al-Si alloy. On the other hand, the tensile strength was significantly increased upon reinforcement. B5 exhibited the highest tensile strength by displaying a transition from needles/plate-like to globular/fibrous morphology.
The key focus of this work was to examine the effect of hybrid fiber reinforcement on thethermal properties of particulate based natural fiber-reinforced hybrid composites. Banana and sisal fiberswere selected as natural fiber reinforcements for the polyester matrix based composites, which wereproduced by mechanical stir mix technique. Thermo-Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Fourier-TransformInfrared Spectroscopy (FTIS) were conducted in accordance with American Society for Testing andMaterials (ASTM) standards for the characterization of the hybrid composites. The FTIS result shows thedisappearance of 1735 cm-1 peak, a notable evidence of NaOH treatment. The thermal analysis showedthat the hybridization significantly affected the high temperature stability of the composite, with 70%Sisal/30%Banana found to have the lowest high temperature mass loss at a temperature of 300–520oC, thushighest high temperature stability. Derivative Thermogravimetry (DTG) results shows a minor mass lossrate at a temperature range of 50–150oC as well as a major mass loss rate due to pyrolysis of key fiberconstituents such as cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin between 260 and 350oC. Also it was observed thatas the percentage of banana in the hybrid fiber increases the speed of high temperature mass loss reduces.
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