The Compressive Properties of Kevlar/Kenaf Hybrid Composites

摘要

Natural fibres are aimed to replace or at least to reduce the dependence of the industrial sector against low degradability of raw material. Hence, this study is performed to investigate the effect of stacking sequence and fibre orientation on the compressive properties of Kevlar/kenaf hybrid composites. Previous study suggested that treated kenaf fibres improved the fibre's properties. Therefore, kenaf fibres was treated with NaOH of 6% concentration for 12 hours before rinsed and dried to be used in this study. The stacking sequence was varied for different weight percentage of woven Kevlar from 0 wt% to 23 wt%, while the kenaf fibres were arranged at 0° and 90° orientation, respectively. The compressive properties of the Kevlar/kenaf fibre hybrid composites were investigated using Instron Universal Testing Machine (ASTM standard D3410M). Stereo-zoom was used to identify the fibre orientation and the bonding between the fibres and matrix. For stacking sequence, the study showed that the arrangement of kenaf fibres on the middle part, "sandwiched" between Kevlar on the outer part, gave the best compressive performance. The sample in 0°orientation exhibited better compressive strength and modulus than 90° orientation. The outcome of this research has shown significant increase of compressive strength with the addition of kenaf fibre replacing the Kevlar.