TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARATION i
APPROVAL
ii
ABSTRACT iii
ABSTRAK iv
DEDICATION v
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi
TABLE OF CONTENTS vii
LIST OF FIGURES xi
LIST OF TABLES
xvii
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS, SYMBOLS AND NOMENCLATURES xviii
1. INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Background
1 1.2
Problem Statement 1.3
Objectives 1.4
Scope 3
4 4
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
6
2.1 Composites
2.1.1 Introduction
2.1.2 Polymer matrix composite
2.2 Matrix
2.2.1 Introduction
2.2.2 Thermoset
2.2.3 Thermoplastic
2.3 Reinforcement
6 6
7 8
8 9
10 11
vii
2.3.1 Introduction
2.3.2 Synthetic fibre
2.3.3 Natural fibre
2.4 Banana Fibre
2.4.1 Introduction
2.4.2 Characteristic of banana fibre
2.4.3 Banana fibre composite
2.5 Natural FibreMatrix Interface Adhesion
2.5.1 Fibre surface modification
2.5.2 Coupling agent addition
2.5.2.1 Silane
2.5.2.2 Maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene
2.5.2.3 Novel hybrid coupling agent
2.6 Rheological Properties of Composites
2.6.1 Introduction
2.6.2 Shear stress, shear rate viscosity
2.6.3 Power Law
2.7 Morphological Properties of Composites
2.7.1 Morphology of fibre
2.7.2 Relationship between the presence of coupling agent
with morphology of composite 11
12 15
17 17
18 20
21 22
24 25
27 29
30 30
31 32
34 34
35 2.7.3
Relationship between rheological-morphological properties of composite
36
3. METHODOLOGY 39
3.1 Materials
3.1.1 Banana fibre
3.1.2 Polypropylene
39 39
40 3.1.3
Coupling agent 41
3.2 Methods
42
viii
3.2.1 Processing of banana fibre
3.2.2 Characterization of banana fibre
3.2.3 Mixing of coupling agent and matrix
3.2.4 Composite processing
3.2.5 Rheological measurement
3.2.6 Microscopic examination
42 43
44 45
46 48
48 52
53 54
55 56
3.2.6.1 Specimen preparation
3.2.6.2 Microscopic observation
3.3 Gantt Chart for PSM I
3.4 Gantt Chart for PSM II
3.5 Flow Chart of Material Preparation
3.6 Flow Chart of Experiment
4. RESULTS 57
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Characterization of Banana Fibre
4.2.1 Density
4.2.2 Fibre size
4.3 Rheological Properties
4.3.1 Effect of fibre loading on rheology
4.3.2 Effect of silane concentration on rheology
4.4 Morphological Properties
57 57
57 58
59 62
64 67
5. DISCUSSION 80
5.1 Rheological Properties
80 5.1.1
Effect of fibre loading on rheology 81
5.1.2 Effect of shear rate and fibre loading on viscosity
83 84
5.1.3 Effect of silane concentration on rheology
5.1.4 Effect of shear rate and silane concentration on
viscosity 85
ix
5.2 Morphological Properties
5.2.1 Effect of fibre loading
5.2.2 Effect of silane concentration
5.3 Relationship between Rheological-Morphological Properties
5.3.1 Effect of fibre loading
5.3.2 Effect of silane concentration
87 88
89 93
93 108
6. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
