Prof.  Alokesh  Pramanik
School of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at Curtin University,  Australia

Title: Tensile Strength and Morphological Behavior of Treated Oil Pam Empty Fruit Bunch Particle Reinforced Polymeric Composite

Abstract:

Numerous literatures have suggested that the use of natural fiber as filler can improve the mechanical properties of a polymer composite. Oil palm empty fruit bunch fibers (OPEFB) are no exception and have shown to exhibit good mechanical properties, with the potential to produce environmentally friendlier composites. In this study, the tensile strengths and morphologies of micro OPEFB filled composites with varying loadings (0.3125 wt% to 10 wt%) were investigated. It was found that increasing content of OPEFB reduces the translucency of the composite almost linearly. It was also revealed that the addition of 0.3125 wt% to 2.5 wt% has a reinforcing effect, observing improvement up to 17.4% compared to its neat condition. Such findings would facilitate the development of an effective OPEFB reinforced polymeric nanocomposite.

Biography:

Dr Pramanik is currently a lecturer in Mechanical Engineering Discipline, School of Civil and Mechanical Engineering at Curtin University, Perth, Australia. He completed Masters and PhD degrees in Mechanical Engineering from National University of Singapore and University of Sydney respectively. Dr Pramanik has more than 15 year of research experience in the fields of manufacturing as well as composite materials at different universities. He has published more than 110 research articles which include several books, many book chapters and many reputed journal articles.