Papers by Author: Khalina Abdan

Abstract: This paper presents the results of three different fibers, Kenaf (hibiscus cannabinus), oil palm (Elaeis guineensis) and abaca (Musa textilis) which were treated using 5 different types of surface treatments namely sodium hydroxide for 24 hours, glycidoxypropyltrimethoxy-silane for 24 hours, NaOH followed by Silane (each 24 hours), NaOH followed by Silane (each 12 hours) and NaOH followed by Silane (each 6 hours). The mechanical strength of the fibers were then studied and compared to the untreated fibers. The highest strength was given by the fibers treated with NaOH followed by the combined treatments and the lowest were the fibers treated with silane. Also the bonding strength between the fibers and unsaturated polyester resin were then evaluated using micro droplet pull out tests. It was proven that all the treatments improved on the bonding strength. The highest was silane followed by NaOH. For the combined treatments it was found that the highest IFSS was given by the lowest treatment duration at 6 hours, due to the alkali nature of NaOH corroding the fibers which were then filled with silane, thus losing the ability to properly bond with the resin. The samples were also then characterized using a SEM to check the surface morphology which revealed that the NaOH reduced the diameter by removing impurities and lignin, thus increasing the aspect ratio. While silane coats the surface, increases the diameter and reduces the aspect ratio. Keywords. Kenaf, Abaca, OPF, Chemical Treatment, Bonding Strength, Droplet Test, SEM

Abstract: Towards green material, fatigue life of unidirectional kenaf fibre reinforced epoxy composites was investigated made from the hand-layout technique. The composites were subjected to tension-tension fatigue loading at stress ratio of 0.5 and 5 Hz of frequency. Fibre content ratios were found to affect fatigue life on the low cycle fatigue regime strongly as illustrated with stress level versus cycles to failure. It is found that kenaf fibre reinforced epoxy composites with higher fibre content posses higher load carrying capacity and degradation rates.

Abstract: Printed circuit boards (PCB) are widely used in electronic devices, at low and high frequency applications. Unfortunately, conventional PCBs are basically made from toxic petroleum products. Once they are unusable, they are bound to be thrown away since they are not recyclable or easily decomposed. In solving this problem, a new PCB substrate, which is based on reinforcing natural fiber with thermoplastics, is proposed. Oil palm empty fruit bunch has been chosen as raw material while polypropylene (PP) was added as filler. In modeling the prototype, five different loadings of natural fiber reinforced with different percentages of weight of PP were studied. The reflection method (one-port reflection coefficient method) is employed in measuring the permittivity. The measurement covers permittivity and dielectric loss.