Fabrication Towards Mechanical Properties Of Aluminium-Kenaf Fibre Reinforced Hybrid As Biodegradable Light Weight Composite Material

During the past decades,the increasing demand for high performance and lightweight materials has stimulated the development of alternative materials,namely Fibre Metal Laminate (FML)structures.FML is a sandwich structure which is formed by bonding the metallic layers with composite as core constituent by means of adhesive agent. In this study,the mechanical behavior of FMLs with the core constituents of environmental friendly kenaf fibre reinforced polypropylene composites was studied.The FMLs were manufactured through the hot press moulding compression method where the adhesives were incorporated between metallic layers and composite.The effects of fibre compositions (50,60,and 70 wt%),fibre lengths (3, 6, 9 cm) and chemical treatment on the mechanical responses of FML were investigated.Results revealed that the increase of fibre composition and fibre length reduces the tensile,flexural and indentation properties of FML.However the impact energy absorbed by the kenaf fibre reinforced FMLs increases as the kenaf fibre loading in the FML increases for both untreated and alkaline treated kenaf bast fibres The chemical treated kenaf fibre reinforced FML showed a significant enhancement on the mechanical properties in comparison to the non-treated fibre reinforced FML.