The experimental study was taken to determine the ideal soaking time of interwoven

kenaf/epoxy composites during treatment process with few different types of liquid medium which are;
tap water, rain water, river water, and sea water. All of these type of water have different pH level of
moisture. 50 sample of interwoven kenaf/epoxy composites will be soak into each types of water in its
natural area (example: running stream if in river and directly into the sea water, not put sea water in the
bottle) and will be collected in different time scheduled such as 1 day,3 day, 5 day, 1 week, 2 week, and
3 weeks. A graph of soaking time versus percentage of moisture will then be plotted and tensile test will
be conducted on the sample in order to see the most ideal stage of soaking time versus percentage of
moisture in interwoven kwnaf/epoxy composites with posses the highest maximum strength. The data
then will be recorded.

Take the sample and label the sample according to the soaking time. This label help us to sort
the sample according to the soaking time. Put sample in the container that have small holes around it to
exposed the sample to the surrounding and soak the sample in water ( must be in its natural form, for
example: flowing river if in river, and dip right in the sea if sea water. Not put water in other container
and soak it). Take out the sample according to the labeled scheduled time and test the sample strength.
Record and tabulated the sample data. Repeat the experiment using sample from another scheduled
time.

The experiment study was taken to determine the mechanical characterization of pineapple leaf fiber
(PALF) epoxy composite. In this experiment, PALF will use as a natural fiber or reinforcement phase and
epoxy as matrix phase. This experiment will use 1 type of untreated natural fiber and 4 types of treated
natural fibers. Both untreated and treated natural fibers will used as reinforcement in unsaturated
epoxy resin composites. Different type of chemical which is sodium hydroxide (NaOH), silane and
acetylation will use in treated natural fiber. PALF will soak in NaOH, NaOH + silane, NaOH + acetylation
and silane + acetylation. The composite were manufactured using a vacuum infusion process. The
volume fractions of the PALF and epoxy resin will be discuss later. The reinforcement plies will laminated
above a glass mould. The resin will infused into the lamination plies using a high vacuum pump. The
measured in-mould pressure was lower than 2000 Pa before the resin was infused into the mold. The
specimen will left to cure within the mold at room temperature. Then the post curing will conducted in
an oven to a specified temperature and holds this temperature for a set time.

Dog-bone-shaped composite specimen with a set dimension where formed from both untreated and
treated composite, and will test according to fatigue testing (ASTM E466-15). Fatigue test method for
determining the behavior of materials under fluctuating loads. A specified mean load and an alternating
load are applied to a specimen and the number of cycles required to produce failure is recorded.
Subsequently, thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and field emission scanning electron microscopy
(FESEM) will applied into the specimen.

INTRODUCTION
The demand for wood as a building material increasing day by day but the availability has been
diminishing. Hence there is a need for the developments of alternative material .There were many
alternatives which can replace the wood among which the composite were best suitable. Composite
materials were materials which were formed from two or more constituent material which can provide
the desirable properties and the materials can be easily separated. Composite material has two phases

Matrix phase: The matrix phase is the continuous phase in the composite. It may be a polymer, metal or
ceramic. Among these polymer is consider to be best by its mechanical and thermal properties. It is low
cost and easy fabrication hence it is economical.

Reinforcing phase: The reinforcing phase is the distribution phase in the composite. Many reinforcing
materials were available such as the natural fiber, synthetic fiber, particle etc

Composite materials have high mechanical properties when compared to each individual material.
Composite material results in a newly material with high mechanical and thermal properties which
cannot be achieved by a single material [1].

Nowadays there has been a growing interest in developing natural fiber reinforced polymer composite
for low cost constructions and building applications. In many countries where the availability of natural
fibers were abundant, the scientists and engineers apply suitable technologies to utilize those natural
fibers economically in developing quality fiber reinforced polymer resin composite for constructing and
other applications. A proper composite should have good distribution of fibers within the matrix. A good
distribution means the fibers were fully isolated from each of them and they should be surrounded by
polymer matrix. Hence there is a need for the development of the fiber reinforced in a polymer
composite for the substitution to the scarce wood and also for the synthetic fibers [2].

Natural fibres are widely used for reinforcement in polymer composites. The advantages of natural
fibres such as renewable, environmental friendly, low cost and many more are well known. Besides that,
there are also disadvantages in term of mechanical properties. Natural fibres are used in many
applications such as aerospace industry, marine sector, automotive industry, sporting segments, and
construction industries. In order to improve the mechanical properties of natural fibres composites,
researcher enhanced their effort in hybridisation with synthetic fibres.

The environmental effects on the mechanical properties of natural fibre composites are well researched
and described in the literatures. Costa et al. studied the effect of water absorption on the mechanical
properties of sisal and jute fiber composites. The jute epoxy composite showed the best properties over
all the immersion times analysed. The experimental results showed that the sisal fibres are much more
strongly affected by moisture than jute fibres. The jute-epoxy composites showed the best mechanical
properties and were the least affected by the exposure of the composites to distilled water. Rashdi et al.
effects of water absorption due to water immersion, soil buried and natural weather on mechanical
properties of kenaf fibre unsaturated polyester composites (KFUPC). They observed the reduction in
tensile strength and modulus of the composites in the humid samples compared to the dry samples. The
percentage of moisture uptake increased as the weight percentage of fibre is increased due to the high
cellulose content. The water absorption pattern of these composites was found to follow Fickian
behavior. Seki et al. studied the effects of water absorption on the interlaminar shear strength of jute-
reinforced polyester in distilled water and salt water. The results showed that all the solutions
marginally degraded the interlaminar shear strength values of the composites

Fiber reinforced composites are among the most advanced engineering materials in various industrial
applications. It widely used for reinforcement in epoxy composite. There are some interesting
characteristic of natural fiber such as their low density, cost effectiveness, renewability and vast
abundance. Natural fiber are used in many application such as automotive industry, aerospace industry,
sport segment, army sector and construction industries. Beside that, there are also have some weakness
of term mechanical properties. In order to improve the mechanical characteristic of the natural fiber,
there are many ways that used by researcher to get the better composite material. One of the ways is by
treat the natural fiber with three type of chemical which is Sodium hydroxide (NaOH), silane and
acetylation.