Investigation On Kenaf Fibre (KF) - Fly Ash (FA) Hybrid Epoxy Composite For Electrical Insulator Application

• Main Author: Muhammad Harith Aiman B. Shamsudin
• Language: English
• Published: 2023
• Subjects: Kenaf Fibre; Fly Ash; Epoxy; Hybrid composite

In recent years, generally kenaf fibres are better than synthetic fibres, such as ecological fibre, biodegradability, renewable nature and lightness. In general, it is less mechanic than the E-glass fibres commonly used in composites, but the density of E-glass, about 2,5 g / cc, is high, whereas the density of natural fibre is about 1.2 to 1,5 g / cc. In addition, the mechanical properties of natural fibres are generally low. Thus, certain natural fibres are very similar to glass fibres, in terms of their specific strength and module. Apart from that, new demand of industries is to utilize the industrial waste materials into commercial products, thus fly ash (FA) will be used in this project as a filler/reinforcement of the kenaf fibre-hybrid Epoxy composite that to be used as electrical insulator application. Fly ash as reinforcement combine with the composite by using hand layout method. The amount of fly ash was varied into 4 samples, first without FA, second with 3%, third with 6% and lastly with 9 % of FA in kenaf fibre-hybrid epoxy composite. The mechanical properties of the composite then studied by separating into 3 tests, which are tensile strength test, impact test and hardness test. Furthermore, software such as SolidWorks and ANSYS will be used to design the flat tensile bar using ASTM-D638 standard and simulating it. By the end of this project, the morphological characteristic of the composite be able to identify and develop better electrical insulator by combining natural fibre and waste material together as composite.