Tensile and Flexural Properties of HDPE/PET/Kenaf Hybrid Composites

• Main Author: Ahmad Sohimi, Amierul Fahmi
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI PETRONAS 2012
• Subjects: TJ Mechanical engineering and machinery
• Online Access: http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/6250/1/Dissertation%20FYP%20II%20FINALE%20AMIERUL%20FAHMI%2011883.pdf; http://utpedia.utp.edu.my/6250/

Natural fiber reinforced plastics (NFRP) is one of the advanced technologies developed in the engineering material industry. The examples of NFRP are kenaf fiber reinforced polypropylene (PP) composites; pineapple leaf fiber reinforced highdensity polyethylene (HDPE), and others. The advantages of NFRP are biodegradable, lightweight, low production cost and it does not release carbon dioxide when burnt. NFRP has been extensively used in manufacturing the interior parts of car and bumpers. Hybrid composite is defined as a matrix that bonds with two or more reinforcements. Theoretically, hybrid composites offer better mechanical properties than non-hybrid composites. This work aimed to the study of tensile and flexural properties of HDPE/ Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) fiber/kenaf hybrid composites with and without compatibilizer. Two equal weight proportions of fibers were fabricated using compression molding technique at processing temperature of 200oC. A compatibilizer was added to further enhance the interfacial bonding between fibers and matrix. The samples obtained were undergone tensile and flexural tests according to ASTM D638 and ASTM D790 respectively. The overall result showed that the hybrid composites had higher tensile and flexural properties with highest improvement recorded was 32% and 51% respectively compared to neat HDPE. It was also found that the optimal fibers content for achieving highest tensile properties was 20 wt%. For flexural strength, the optimal fibers content was 30%. FESEM images were used to characterize the microstructure of the hybrid composites.