Optimisation of Water Absorption Parameters of Bagasse, Cocoa Pod Husk and Guinea Fowl Feather Reinforced Hybrid Epoxy Composites using Taguchi Method

Abstract

Particulate waste of bagasse, cocoa pod husk and guinea fowl feathers may be adopted to fabricate epoxy composites due to their properties of biodegradability, lightweight and cheapness. However, most research has excluded the combination of these reinforcements while the optimisation behaviour of the reinforced composites at room temperature water absorption process is not known. To fill this knowledge gap, this paper aims to analyse issues related to optimisation of the mentioned reinforced composites considering Taguchi’s L25 orthogonal array, the smaller the better signal-to-noise criterion and remodelling of signal-to-noise ratio after the exponential smoothening structure for optimisation. The experiment considered 25% reinforcement blends to 75% epoxy resin. But the 25% reinforcement had five formulations among the component reinforcements. The experiment, using tap water, was conducted for 216 days with measurement intervals random. The response table yielded A5B5C4, indicating 158 experimental days, 12.29g of weight gained by the drained composites, and 7.32g of weight gained by composites damped in 190ml of water. The revised response table that has been influenced by the exponential smoothening method yielded A5B5C5, interpreted as 158 days of experiments, 12.29g of weight gained by the drained composites, and 7.44g of weight gained by composites dumped in 190ml of water. Using the damping factors from 0.05 to 1, different combinations as optimal parameters were obtained, assuring the investigator that the method is feasible. Thus, the optimisation assessment could provide a new method of combining the reinforcement to enhance the composite development process using waste.