RESULT 39 DISCUSSION 48 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 56

4.0 RESULT 39

4.1 Material preparation 39 4.2 ASTM for flexural properties C 393 40 4.3 ASTM for tensile testing D 3039M 43 4.4 ASTM for water absorption of core material C272 45 4.5 Impact Test ASTM D 256 46

5.0 DISCUSSION 48

5.1 Effect of Aminopropyltriethoxysilane on flexural properties 48 5.2 Tensile strength 50 5.3 Water absorption 52 5.4 Impact Test 53

6.0 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 56

6.1 Conclusion 56 6.2 Suggestion and recommendation 57 REFERENCES 58 APPEDICES 60 A Gantt chart B Graphs C Pictures LIST OF TABLES NO TITLE PAGE 2.1 Typical Physical Properties 15 4.2 Flexural modulus for 15 oil palm shell powder 41 filled pp without compatibilizer 4.3 Flexural modulus for 15 oil palm shell powder 42 filled pp with compatibilizer 4.4 Tensile strength for 15 oil palm shell powder 44 filled pp without compatibilizer 4.5 Tensile strength for 15 oil palm shell powder 44 filled pp with compatibilizer 4.6 Value of water absorption for 15 oil palm shell 45 powder filled pp with compatibilizer 4.7 Value of water absorption for 15 oil palm shell 45 powder filled pp without compatibilizer 4.8 Impact value for 15 oil palm shell powder filled 46 pp without compatibilizer 4.9 Impact value for 15 oil palm shell powder filled 47 pp with compatibilizer LIST OF FIGURES NO TITLE PAGE 2.1 Structure of palm fruit 9 2.2 Cross section of a fruitlet 9 2.3 Fresh fruit bunch 10 2.4 Fresh fruit on the left cut fruit 10 2.5 Polypropylene produce from propylene monomer 13 2.6 Isotactic polypropylene 13 2.7 Atactic polypropylene 14 2.8 Aminopropyltriethoxysilane chemical structure 15 2.9 Picture of Aminopropyltriethoxysilane in polymer lab 16 2.100 Picture of rotor mill machine 17 2.11 Sieves ring and rotor blade 18 2.112 Plasticizing single screw extruder 19 2.123 Engineering Stress-Strain Diagram depicting 23 important mechanical properties for metals 2.134 Anatomy of a universal hydraulic testing machine 24 2.145 Picture of impact tester machine 25 3.1 Flow chart processes 27 3.2 Extrusion machine in polymer lab 29 3.3 Crusher and hot press machine 30 3.4 Three point bending 32 4.15 Picture of oil palm shell powder with different 39 powder sizes 4.16 Extruded oil palm shell powder and polypropylene mixture 40 4.17 Specimen after hot pressed 40 4.4 Example of graph obtained from for flexural tests 41 4.5 Example of curve stress vs. strain during tensile strength 43 4.6 Example of table from Trapezium2 software for flexural 43 test 5.18 Graph shows maximum force for 15 oil palm shell 49 filled polypropylene with compatibilizer 5.2 Three type of stressstrain graph 50 5.3 Stress vs. strain graph for 15 oil palm shell powder filled 51 polypropylene 5.3 Picture shows how silane reacts between matrix and 50 reinforcement 5.4 Graph impact value vs. specimen 53 5.5 Bar chart that show comparison of impact strength value 54 between both composite 5.6 Carbon vs. silicon chemistry 55 LIST OF SYMBOLS σ Tensile strength σ f Stress in outer fibers at midpoint, [MPa] ε f Strain in the outer surface, [] E b Modulus of elasticity in bending,[MPa] AMPS Aminopropyltriethoxysilane ASTM American standard testing material b Width of test beam, [mm] C Carbon CMC Ceramic matrix composite CPO Crude palm oil d Depth of tested beam, [mm] D maximum deflection of the center of the beam, [mm] E Flexural Modulus PP Polypropylene L Support span, [mm] m Slope of the tangent to the initial straight-line portion of the load deflection curve, [Nmm] MAPP Maleic Anhydride Polypropylene MMC Metal matrix composite P load at a given point on the load deflection curve, [N] PE Polyethylene PMC Polymer matrix composite RD Reasearch and development Rp Radius the plastic zone Si Silicon UTeM Universiti Teknikal Malaysia Melaka UTHM Universiti Teknologi Tun Hussein Malaysia UTM Universal Testing Machine LIST OF APPENDICES APPENDIX TITLE PAGE A1 Gantt Chart for semester 1 59 A2 Gantt Chart for semester 2 59 B Stress strain curves for flexural and tensile test 60 C Pictures CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background

Natural fiber composites have attracted the attention of scientists and engineers due to their low cost, low density an environmentally harmless properties. Many attempts have been made to prepare and evaluate natural fiber composites for various applications. Polypropylene PP and oil palm shell powder are used to produce polymer composite in this project. The processes involved in producing this composite are a crushing of oil palm shell, extrusion moulding process, hot pressing and some cutting process. The purpose of crushing is to produce particulate form of oil palm shell, while the using of extrusion moulding machine is to produce a compound of oil palm shell powder and PP with a good blend. The extruded oil palm shell powderPP composite will then crushed into crusher into small granules. After the panel of oil palm shellPP composite is prepared, it will be cut into specific dimension that required by its testing, in this research, 4 type of testing i.e. flexural strength, tensile strength, impact strength and water absorption will be conducted. All testings follow the American Standard Testing Material ASTM and the details about these testing will be elaborated in Chapter 2. As a method to improve the compatibility between particulate reinforcement and the matrix, compatibilizer will be used in this project. By improving the compatibility between oil palm shell and PP, the mechanical properties also will be improved. The mechanical properties of the composite will be characterized by studying the flexural strength, impact strength, Young modulus, water absorption and effect of the compatibilizer on the properties of the composites itself.

1.2 Problem statement