DEVELOPMENT OF CARBON FIBRE REINFORCED NATURAL RUBBER COMPOSITE FOR VIBRATION ISOLATION

Abstract

The study “Development of Carbon Fibre Reinforced Natural Rubber for Vibration Isolation” is based on readily available materials within the locality. Carbon fibre was extracted from periwinkle shell to reduce the high cost of processing carbon fibre from petroleum pitch and to serve as reinforcement to the natural rubber resin. The fibre was then activated using potassium hydroxide (KOH) followed by various characterization through XRF, tensile test, hardness and impact test. The composite was formed, with the reinforced material based on calculated percentages of 10 %, 20 % and 30 % and added differently to 220 g of natural rubber resin. The samples were then prepared for various test analysis based on ISO and ASTM standard, (ISO 527 for tensile test, ISO 179 for impact test and ASTM D2240 for hardness test) to determine the composite strength in comparison with the natural rubber for vibration isolation. The basis for this comparison is because natural rubber is widely used as a vibration isolator. The result analysed shows an increased in tensile strength of the composite to 0.20 MPa as against 0.09 MPa of natural rubber resin, indicating an increased in strength of 45 %, with good strain rate for improved isolator life and high resistance to thermal expansion. The result also shows 10 % fibre reinforcement as the most effective proportion for high impact test in reducing the brittle nature of the carbon fibre with improved strength of 22 %. The 10 % fibre reinforcement also shows high resilience in energy absorption than both the 20 % and 30 % reinforcement respectively.