Characterisation of kenaf/pineapple leaf fibre reinforced composite-metal laminates with enhanced mechanical properties

• Main Author: Ng, Lin Feng
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English; English
• Published: 2021
• Subjects: T Technology (General); TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
• Online Access: http://eprints.utem.edu.my/id/eprint/26008/2/Characterisation%20of%20kenaf%20pineapple%20leaf%20fibre%20reinforced%20composite-metal%20laminates%20with%20enhanced%20mechanical%20properties.pdf; http://eprints.utem.edu.my/id/eprint/26008/3/Characterisation%20of%20kenaf%20pineapple%20leaf%20fibre%20reinforced%20composite-metal%20laminates%20with%20enhanced%20mechanical%20properties.pdf; http://eprints.utem.edu.my/id/eprint/26008/; https://plh.utem.edu.my/cgi-bin/koha/opac-detail.pl?biblionumber=121278
• Institution: Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka

The mechanical properties of fibre metal laminates (FMLs) are worth investigating since such materials offer several superior characteristics over conventional metallic alloys. Majority of the research has focused on the mechanical properties of hybrid composite materials and conventional synthetic fibre-based FMLs. However, the mechanical properties of polypropylene-based short kenaf/pineapple leaf fibre reinforced hybrid composites and woven kenaf/pineapple leaf FMLs still remain unexplored. This study aims at investigating the influences of fibre weight compositions, chemical treatments and relative fibre ratios on the mechanical properties of non-hybrid and hybrid composites based on short kenaf/pineapple leaf fibres. In addition, the mechanical tests were performed to characterise the non-hybrid and hybrid woven kenaf/pineapple leaf fibre-based metal laminates with various fibre architectures and stacking configurations. In this research study, the kenaf/pineapple leaf fibre reinforced composites and FMLs were manufactured through the hot press moulding compression method. A series of mechanical tests were conducted to determine the mechanical properties of the materials. In accordance with the results obtained, the composites had evidenced the highest mechanical properties when the fibre weight composition was fixed at 30 wt% regardless of types of fibre. The mechanical properties of both kenaf and pineapple leaf fibre reinforced composites increased with the increase of fibre weight composition up to a critical limit of 30 wt %. The drop in the mechanical properties was noticed when the fibre weight composition was above the critical limit. In the context of chemical treatments, the NaOH and silane treated kenaf and pineapple leaf fibre-based composites showed higher mechanical properties over those of untreated composites. It was noticed that 5 % NaOH and 3 % silane treatments could provide excellent mechanical properties to the composite materials. However, the composites with the combination of the 5 % NaOH and 3 % silane treatments were shown to have the highest mechanical properties. When looking into the effect of hybridisation, the mechanical properties of the composites increased with the increase of pineapple leaf fibre content. Overall, the composites with the relative fibre ratio of 0 : 100 (kenaf : Pineapple leaf) evidenced the superior mechanical properties. When comparing the mechanical properties of FMLs with different fibre architectures, twill woven FMLs had outperformed those of plain woven FMLs irrespective of types of fibre. Furthermore, it was revealed that the hybrid pineapple leaf/kenaf/pineapple leaf fibre-based FMLs exhibited comparable mechanical and indentation properties to the non-hybrid pineapple leaf fibre-based FMLs particularly when subjected to out-of-plane loadings. Kenaf fibre has been shown to have high availability and economic value while pineapple leaf fibre is currently regarded as agricultural waste having high mechanical strength. Therefore, it can be concluded that the hybridisation of kenaf and pineapple leaf fibre in FMLs could develop a material with high economic value and mechanical strength while reducing the agricultural waste on the earth.