UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGIMARA MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF …

UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MARA

MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OFTREATED ARENGA PINNATA

FIBRE REINFORCEDNANOMODIFIED EPOXY

COMPOSITE

MUHAMAD FARIS SYAFI Q BIN KHALID

Thesis submitted in fulfilmentof the requirements for the degree of

Master of Science

Faculty of Mechanical Engineering

September 2017

AUTHOR'S DECLARATION

I declare that the work in this thesis was carried out in acco rdance with the regul ation s

of Universiti Teknologi MARA. It is or igina l and is the res ults of my own work ,

unless otherwise indica ted or acknowledge d as referenc ed work. Thi s thesi s has not

been submitted to any other academic instit utio n or non- academic institution for any

degree or qualification.

I, hereby, acknowledge that I have bee n supplied with the Acad emic Rul es and

Regu lations for Post Graduate, Universi ti Te knolog i MAR A, regulating the conduct

of my study and research.

Name of Student

Student 1.0. No .

Programme

Faculty

Thesis Tit le

Signature of Student

Date

Muhamad Faris Sya fiq Bin Kh alid

20142275 12

Master of Scie nce (Mec hanical Enginee ring) - EM750

Mec hanica l Enginee ring

Mec hanica l Prop ert ies of Treat ed Arenga Pinnata

Fibre Reinforced Nanomodified Epoxy Composite

iii

ABSTRACT

Natura l fibres have attracted researchers and manufacturers attention due to theirnum erou s adva ntages such as abunda nce of resources, environmental friendly, lessharm to human body, good mechanical properties and low density. In order toincrease the usage of natural fibre , lot s of researches have bee n don e on natura l fibresas re info rce me nt to polymer matrix . In this study, plant base d natu ral fibre ca lledArenga Pinnata was selec ted and its properties were studied. Arenga Pinnata fibre wasselec ted due to its rema rkable characteristic s especially high durabi lity and resistanceto sea wa ter. Foc us of thi s study is to evaluate the effect of fibre vo lume frac tion ,filler inclusio n and fibre surface treatm ent on phy sical and mec han ical prop erties ofArenga Pinn ata fibr e reinforced epoxy composite (AP REC) . Mec hanica l properties ofnatur al fibr e re inforced polymer (NFRP) mostl y depend on the fibre and po lymerprop erti es and also interfacial bond ing in betw een them. Th us, nanos ilica was used toenhance the mechan ical prop erti es of epoxy matrix and Are nga Pinn ata had beentreated using silane in order to impr ove interfacial bonding between fibres and matrix.The APREC samples, with 10vol%, 15vol %, 20vol%, and 25vo l% fibre vo lumefractio ns, were produ ced usin g hand -layup and cold-pre ssing techniques . Flexura l,tensi le and compress ion tests were performed in order to obtai n modu lus of elasticity ,strength and strai n to failure of APREC. The morpho logical structure of fracture dspeci me ns was obse rve d usin g scanning electron microscopy (SEM) in order toeva luate the frac ture mechani sm s involved . Preliminary tests were conducted on bothunid irection al (UD) and rand om ori entation AP REC. Based on the result s, theperform ance of UD A PREC was better than random orientation APREC. The flexur almodulus and strength of UD APREC were 5.31% and 35 .73% higher than those ofrand om APREC, res pec tive ly. There fore , UD APREC was selecte d and used foreva lua tion of the effec t of fibr e vo lume fraction , filler incl usion and fibre surfacetrea tme nt. The res ults show ed that nanosili ca additi on and silane treatment improvedmechani cal prop erti es of UD APREC. Flexural modulus and strength of UD APRECwas increased by 5.42 1Yo and 3.59% with addition of 5wt % nanosilica, 8.53% and13.25 % with silane treatm ent , and 15.46% and 13.75 % with both, respec tive ly.Nanos ilica addition and silane treatm ent showed positi ve improvement to UD APRECon tensile behaviour where tensile modulus incre ased by 2.45 %, 1.67%, and 3.34 %for the addition of nanosil ica, silane treatm ent , and both procedure , respec tive ly. Theadditio n of 5wt% nanosili ca in silane- treated UD AP REC exhibited the highesttensi le strength where the incre me nt of 4.86% was observed compared to pur e UDA PREC. Nanosi lica addition gave the best impr ovement on compression prop ert ies ofUD A PREC compare d to flexural and tensile properties when the compress ivemodulus of UD APREC with nan osili ca addition shown 46 .61% increme nt,meanwhil e maximum compressive strength wa s obtai ned by UD APREC withaddition of nanosili ca and silane treated fibre which gave 5.92% incre me nt. Overallresu lts for th is study ind ica ted that the addition of 5% nanosilica and the used ofsilane treated fibr es give the best mechan ical properties of APREC. It can beconcl uded that the addition of nanosilic a and silane trea tme nt on Arenga Pinn atafib res enhanced the flexur al, tensile, and compress ive properties of UD APREC.

iv

TA BLE OF CONTENTS

CONFIRMATION BY PANEL OF EXAM INE RS

A UTHOR'S DECLARAT ION

AB STRACT

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES

LIST OF FIGURES

LIST OF PLATES

LIST OF SYMBOLS

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Back ground of Study

1.2 Probl em Stateme nt

1.3 Objec tive s

1.4 Sco pes of Study

1.5 Significa nce of Study

1.6 Structure of the Thesi s

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATU RE REVIEW

2.1 Introduct ion

2.2 Natura l Fibre

2.3 Adva ntages And Disadvantages Of Natural Fibre

2.4 Arenga Pinnata

2.5 Epoxy Polym er

2.6 Nano partic1e Reinforc ed Polymer

2.7 Surface Trea tme nt on Natura l Fibr e

2.7 .1 Silane Treatment (Silane Coupling Agent)

2.7 .2 Previou s Research on Silane Treatment

vi

Pag e

iv

vi

xiii

xvi

xviii

12

18

18

20

22

25

26

27

CHAPTE R ON E

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY

Nat ura l fibres have attracte d the atte ntions of researchers and manufacturers

since way back of yea rs due to their adv antages such as the abundance of resour ces all

aro und the wo rld that make the m low cos t, environmentally safe due to their

biodegradability nature, less harm to hum an body, good mechanical prop erties and

low de nsi ty. Eve ry type of natur al fibres has their own characteristics because of their

grow ing enviro nment and che mical structure. For this study, natural fibre from the

plant calle d Arenga Pinn ata was utili sed . The main cau se that lead to the selection of

Arenga Pinnata fibres was due to its we ll-know n characteristics where it has high

du rabili ty and res istance to sea wa ter when compared to other natura l fibres [1]-[7].

These characteristics are the main adva ntages of Arenga Pinnata fibres .

The usage of Are nga Pinn ata can be track back for centuries when there was

boat that had been found in the Indon esian coas t that used Arenga Pinnata fibres as

ropes that bind toge ther some of the imp ort ant part s of the ship which were exposed

to sea wa ter. This boat then had been given the name " Kapal Punjulharjo" where

Punjul harjo is the name of the place that boat was found . In Ma laysia, Arenga Pinnata

tree was plant ed by Brit ish Eas t India Co mpany in Penang to prod uce high durabil ity

rope from Are nga Pinn ata fi bres in 1800 [ I]. There are other uses of Arenga Pinnt a

fibres such as roofs, filters, broom s, and she lte r for fish breeding [2]. Adva nce use of

Are nga Pinnata fib res was report ed by Ishak and his co lleagues [ I] where it had been

used in road co nstr uctio ns for soi l stabilisa tion as a substitute for geo -texti le fibreg lass

reinforcement [ I] and also used for und erw ater and underground cables [3]. The

latest study tha t had been published on Arenga Pinn ata fibre was the thermal modulus

of Are nga Pinn ata fibre polym er co mpos ite on the effect of moisture abso rption done

by Abdu llah et al. [4] and they concluded that Arenga Pinnata fibre polym er

composite can be used in many applica tions .

Nanotec hno logy has been cons tantly studied and used extensive ly throu ghou t

the globe as new techn ology developm ent. Researchers started to impleme nt thi s