Wear failure analysis of empty fruit bunch and kenaf fibres composites

Shuhimi, Fairuz Fazillah (2017) Wear failure analysis of empty fruit bunch and kenaf fibres composites. Masters thesis, Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka.

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Abstract

Several investigations have been explored the influence of test conditions, contact geometry and environment on the frictional and wear behaviour of polymers and composites. However, there is a lack of understanding about the tribological behaviour of thermoset composites based on natural fibres. Furthermore, the wastes of empty fruit bunches are abundantly available and have reached a level that severely threats the environment. Therefore, it is a great need to find useful applications of those waste materials. Kenaf also grown commercially and it is certainly one of the important plants cultivated for natural fibres globally. It has great potential to use as automotive and construction materials. The aim of this study is to compare the tribological characteristics of Empty Fruit Bunch Fibre/Epoxy (EFBF/E) composites to those of Kenaf Fibre/Epoxy (KF/E) composites. The matrix material used for the present investigation is epoxy resin as the most commonly used polymer matrix with reinforcing fibres for advanced composites applications and provide good performance at room and elevated temperatures. A pin sample with a diameter of 10mm was made using the hot compaction technique. The tribological test was carried out using a pin-on-disc tribometer in dry sliding conditions by applying various temperatures from 23 ⁰C to 150 ⁰C and it was further tested against JISSKD 11 (AISI D2) steel disc. Different fibre loadings were prepared in a range of 30 %-70 % weight percentage for both composites. The results revealed that increasing the temperature leads to increased wear and decreased friction coefficient for both composites. The surface morphology of worn surfaces was also presented to analyse the wear mechanism using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). A wear mapping approach was undertaken to present a clear comparison of wear transition and wear mechanism for both composites. This resulted in increased fibre composition for the EFB leading to severe wear, while the fibre composition of the KF showed better wear performance. Conclusively, EFBF/E can be considered as a tribo-material with great potential, such as in bearing applications and for KF/E composite can expands as the potential of friction materials. However, wear improvement is required further study. The predominant wear mechanisms for the EFBF/E composite and KF/E composite are related to adhesive and abrasive wear.

Item Type: Thesis (Masters)
Uncontrolled Keywords: Plant fibers, Composite materials, Polymeric composites, Fibrous composites, Empty Fruit Bunch, Kenaf Fibres Composites
Subjects: T Technology > T Technology (General)
T Technology > TA Engineering (General). Civil engineering (General)
Divisions: Library > Tesis > FKM
Depositing User: Mohd Hannif Jamaludin
Date Deposited: 15 Mar 2018 07:51
Last Modified: 10 Jun 2022 16:28
URI: http://eprints.utem.edu.my/id/eprint/20548
Statistic Details: View Download Statistic

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