Browsing by Author "Luna Geo"

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    Fabrication, Characterization and Simulation of Flax-Sisal Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Hybrid Composite for Prosthetic Socket
    (Addis Ababa University, 2021-07) Luna Geo; Desalegn Wogaso (PhD)
    Prosthetic limb socket is the major part of a prosthetic leg and arm. It provides comfortable connection, transfers the load, ensures stability between the residual limb and the device. This study aims to investigate tensile, flexural, compression, impact and water absorption properties of Flax-Sisal Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Hybrid Composite. The research also targets to explore its application for prosthetic socket. Hand-layup method was utilized to fabricate thirteen composite specimens having 30mm fiber length and fiber-matrix volume percentages of 40-60, 30-70, and 35-65 according to ASTM standards. Eight composite specimens were treated with 5% NaOH. Comparing the thirteen composites, the result showed the treated composite with F25%-S15%-E60% had superior mechanical and physical properties with tensile strength of 68.40MPa, flexural strength of 145.7MPa, compression strength of 45.64MPa, impact energy of 10.83J and water absorption percentage of 3.66%. In addition, using ANSYS 2020, Prosthetic socket was modeled and loading conditions were applied on composition F25%-S15%-E60% from this, maximum von missed stress of 2.214MPa and deformation of 0.0064mm was obtained. Based on the results and analysis, the selected Flax-Sisal-Epoxy hybrid composite has the potential to be further developed as an alternative material of prosthetic socket.