Hybrid natural and glass fibers reinforced polymer composites material selection using Analytical Hierarchy Process for automotive brake lever design

Abstract

Due to recent trend and increasing awareness towards sustainable product design, natural based fiber materials are gaining a revival popularity to replace synthetic based fiber in the formulation of composites especially for automotive structural and semi structural applications. In this paper, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) method was utilized in the selection of the most suitable natural fiber to be hybridized with glass fiber reinforced polymer composites for the design of a passenger vehicle center lever parking brake component. Thirteen (13) candidate natural based fiber materials for the hybridization process were selected and analyzed to determine their overall scores in three (3) main performance indices according to the component product design specifications. Using the AHP method, the kenaf bast fiber yields the highest scores and was selected as the best candidate material to formulate the hybrid polymer composites for the automotive component construction. Sensitivity analysis was also performed and results show that kenaf bast fiber emerged as the best candidate material in two out of three simulated scenarios, which further validates the results gained through the AHP method.

The unique activity of catalyst in the epoxidation of soybean oil and following reaction of epoxidized product with bisphenol A

“…Application of natural oils for modification and synthesis of different polymers has also a chance to become an answer to higher expectations standing in front of novel polymer materials. Triglycerides from modified vegetable oils are used as renewable raw materials for preparation and modification of different polymers, such as: polyesters (Chowdhury et al, 2013;Liu et al, 2013;Liua et al, 2014), polyamides (Martino et al, 2014;Mohameda et al, 2014), polyurethanes (Datta and Głowińska, 2014;Ji et al, 2015;Kairytė and Vėjelis, 2015;Kong et al, 2013;Sonnenschein et al, 2013;Ugarte et al, 2014;Zieleniewska et al, 2015;Zhang et al, 2014) or organic-inorganic hybrid materials (Haq et al, 2008;Mansor et al, 2013;Riaz et al, 2014). There are already well known applications for polymers of various oils such as soybean, linseed, sunflower, canola, rapeseed, castor, coriander or olive.…”

Hybrid polymer composites for high strain rate applications

“…Therefore, there is a general agreement that the tougher material should be at the outside of the hybrid composite panel and preferably only at the nonimpact side of the panel (Vaidya and Hosur, 2003;Vaidya et al, 2001;Pandya et al, 2013Pandya et al, , 2012Sevkat, 2012;Muhi et al, 2009; Grujicic et al, 2006). Natural fibres are cost-effective, renewable, and environmentally friendly due to reduced CO 2 emissions in their production phase compared with the synthetic fibres (Kim et al, 2012;Mansor et al, 2013). Vehicle weight reduction, especially in the automotive industry, can also be achieved with utilisation of natural fibre/synthetic fibre hybrid composites as a more environmental friendly and economical alternative to synthetic fibre/synthetic fibre hybrid composites.…”

“…However, it is still not clear whether intimate mixing of the constituents or placing all the similar layers at one location is a more effective approach (Aronhime et al, 1992;Saka and Harding, 1987;Grujicic et al, 2006;Muhi et al, 2009). However, due to their low mechanical strength and high level of variability their application has been limited to nonstructural components such as dashboard, floor pan and interior accessories (Mansor et al, 2013). Natural plant fibres used for composite reinforcement are primarily bast fibres (such as hemp, flax, wheat straw, jute, kenaf and ramie) or leaf fibres (such as sisal and banana).…”

Selected Papers from 6th Annual Conference of Energy Economics and Management

“…Khare et al (2012) proposed a multi-objective optimization model to identify the most appropriate phase change materials (PCMs) for latent heat storage design [11]. Similarly, Mansor et al (2013) employed the multi-objective optimization methodology for materials selection in design of an automotive brake lever [12]. O'Connor et al (2016) proposed materials selection criteria for a new skin-wearable organic solar cell design based on its mechanical compliance [13].…”