In order to determine the correlation of flexural strength and thermal shock resistance properties, the sintering behavior of Li 2 O-Al 2 O 3 -SiO 2 (LAS) glass-ceramics at different sintering treatment times and the effect of thermal shock cycles on LAS glass-ceramics were investigated. The LAS glass-ceramics were isothermally treated at 1100°C from 1.5 to 4.5 h. Phase transformation of major crystalline of β-spodumene and minor crystalline of ZrTiO 4 revealed unchanged as sintering treatment time increased. The physical properties of LAS glass-ceramics that were sintered for 3.5 h demonstrated an increased density (2.45 g/cm 3 ) and less porosity percentage (0.62%). The prolonged sintering treatment affected the microstructure whereby the mean grain size increased from 0.55 to 0.67 µm which also demonstrated the increase of microhardness in the range between 3.90 and 5.47 GPa. The flexural strength of LAS glass-ceramics revealed an enhancement of 158 MPa when sintered for 3.5 h. The thermal shock resistance properties were assessed at 500°C from one to seven cycles via thermal shock tests. After four thermal shock cycles, LAS glass-ceramics showed an improvement of 82% of residual strength from its original strength, due to a decrease in the formation of pores and an increase in the crystallinity and percentage of β-spodumene.

For this decade, nanocomposite has received huge interest from over a thousand of researchers due to its outstanding properties in wide applications. Nanocomposite of sole shoes has become new development in sport shoes application while no interest from others has been reported. The purpose of this study is mainly to produce prototype and characterize flexing mechanism of nanocomposite outsole. The materials used for the outsole protoype were polymer matrix of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and ethylene propylene rubber (EPR) at ratio of 70:30 by wt% was added by 3 wt% of CNT nanofiller. The HDPE/EPR-CNT nanocomposites were prepared via single melt blending by using internal mixer and then compression moulded into outsole shape. The outsole was then gone through electron beam (EB) radiation at 100 kGy/s. The flexibility of unradiated and radiated nanocomposite outsole were tested by flexing test according to SATRA TM161 and ISO-17707 standard and fractography of the nanocomposite outsole was observed visually. EB radiated nanocomposite show high properties which suggesting that greater count number in flexing test and less void was observed compared to the unradiated nanocomposite.

This study focuses on the micromechanical properties of polylactic acid (PLA) reinforced with kenaf fiber (KF) and organo-montmorillonite (OMMT) hybrid biocomposite by using nanoindenter. Nanoindenter is an analytical device that can record small load and depth with high accuracy and precision which can be used to determine the modulus, hardness and other mechanical properties of nanomaterials. The result shows that the optimum properties of the hardness and elastic modulus were dominated by PLA-KF-OMMT hybrid composite.

Formation of crystal structures in glass ceramic is influenced by the heat treatment of parent glass. Most of research often studied on the important of sintering temperature and its soaking time. In this study, the effect of soaking time (3, 4 and 5 hours) during melting process (1550 °C) on crystal structures of Lithium Aluminosilicate (LAS) glass ceramic was conducted. All samples were then sintered at 900 °C for 30 minutes. The amorphous phase was identified prior to sintering process and transformed into crystalline phase for all samples after sintering process in XRD analysis. Major crystalline phase of high quartz solid solution and β-spodumene (LiAlSi2O6) were observed and higher intensity peak is found as the soaking time is longer. The microstructure of the sintered samples was observed under SEM and the particles were displayed an evidently growth of the grain as function to the soaking time. The functional groups of Si-O-Si and Si-O(Si, Al) bonding were appeared in fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) analysis corresponding to the silicates and aluminosilicate bonding. The results achieved present 5 hours soaking time during melting process was the optimum soaking time for melting LAS glass at 1550 °C.