Nypa fruticans or locally known as nipah palm is extracted from its fronds to determine its potential as reinforcement in polymer composites. The objective of this paper is to investigate the method to extract nipah palm fiber from its fronds and to determine its diameter and density. Two extraction methods were tested; they are the dry and wet method. The dry method is where the fronds are dried under hot sun and the wet method is where the fronds were soaked in water prior to extraction. The extraction process found that nipah palm has two types of potential fiber suitable for reinforcement, coarse (fiber A) and fine fiber (fiber B). Both extraction methods are able to produce these two fibers. Both methods are discussed extensively in this paper. The diameter of fiber A and B were 0.53±0.06 mm and 0.039±0.08 mm respectively. Distribution of the fibers was measured using optical microscope. The densities of the fibers were measured using pycnometer method and the densities were 1.00 g/cm3 and 0.89 g/cm3 for fiber A and B.

Natural fibers are now becoming a subject of interest to replace synthetic fiber as reinforcement materials where the development of natural fiber composites has been conducted in the last few decades. The objective of this research is to investigate the energy absorption capacity of banana fiber polyester composite and its specific energy absorption capacity as well. Banana fibers are extracted and cut into 10mm, 20mm and 30mm fiber length. Fabrication of rectangular bar as composite samples with different banana fiber length and fiber volume fraction (1%, 2%, and 3%) were conducted and the results are studied and analyzed. The information on energy absorption and specific energy absorption capacity are useful for applications such as automotive structures where the ability to absorb impact may save life. The increase of banana fiber content and length shows an increase of maximum load and energy absorption values for all specimens.

The popularity of the futsal games has gradually increased since it was introduced in Uruguay. Since that, the futsal games became a medium for the young players to train to be professional footballers. Many coaches are avoiding heading tactic until they are 12 years of age. This technique can lead into the potential cause of traumatic brain injury. To date there has been no study to predict the deformation of the futsal ball in normal impact on flat surface at low speeds. The purpose of this study is to investigate the deformation behavior of the futsal ball upon impact. The free fall drop test is performed on the futsal ball size 4 when hitting a rigid target at different heights 500mm, 1,000mm, and 1,500mm. The result shows that, the higher ball drop, the higher deformation of the ball. Then, a finite element model (FEM) of a futsal ball was constructed and the simulation of the ball analysis was done by comparison between two materials, which were Butyl Rubber (IIR) and Latex Rubber (NR). The results show that, the Butyl Rubber is the better material for futsal ball construction, as there are less deformation and stress which is in allowable stress. However, further improvement needs to be done by taking into consideration of the futsal ball under large deformation as well as at a high impact.Index Terms-Futsal ball, deformation, impact analysis, finite element modelling.