TAGUCHI OPTIMIZATION PREDICTION TO EVALUATE THE SYNERGETIC IMPACT OF COCONUT SHELL ASH PARTICLES ON THE TENSILE STRENGTH OF BANANA PSEUDO STEM FIBER COMPOSITES

Abstract

Bananas are a significant fruit crop cultivated around the world, with a substantial amount of biomass being neglected as a waste. This research aimed to investigate the effect of Coconut Shell Ash particle (CSA) on the Tensile strength of Banana Pseudo Stem (BPS) fiber reinforced epoxy composites. The composite was prepared by hand lay-up method by mixing epoxy and hardener in a ratio 2 to 1. Three processing parameters were considered, namely: Particle Percentage (PP), Particle Size (PS) and Curing Time (CT). Each this factor is varied thrice, i.e., PP (3, 6, 9%), PS (20, 35, 45 µm) and CT (12, 24, 36 hrs). The results indicated that the PP was the most influential factor, followed by the PS, while CT had the least impact. The experimental findings were comparable to the predictions obtained through Taguchi optimization The former was 68.1 MPa while the latter was 68.6 MPa, respectively. However, both methods revealed PP₉PS₃₅CT₁₂ as the optimum combination. This shows that 9% (PP), 35 µm (CT) and 12 hrs (CT) are the optimal levels. Percentage error between the experiment and optimisation modelling was less than 3% while the normal probability plot shows that the residual is well aligned to the linear graph.  Thus, the model developed can be reliably utilised to predict the strength of CSA filler composites.