The current study deals with the effective usage of Portunus sanguinolentus shell, which is a solid waste in the seafood industry. This Portunus sanguinolentus shell waste was powdered and used as untreated fillers in jute fabrics reinforced epoxy composites. Then Portunus sanguinolentus shell waste powder was treated with chemicals to perform fat removal, deproteination, decarbonization and deacetylation to obtain treated Portunus sanguinolentus shell filler. Three different composites were developed with traditional hand layup process consisting of four layers jute fabrics that were filled with 10 wt% untreated Portunus sanguinolentus shell filler, chemical treated 10 wt% Portunus sanguinolentus shell filler and unfilled one. The thermo-mechanical and fracture morphologies were assessed by tensile, flexural, compression, shear, impact, hardness thermogravimetric analysis, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy analysis. The results showed an increase in the thermo-mechanical property of chemical-treated Portunus sanguinolentus shell powder-filled jute fabrics-based epoxy composite. This phenomenon is due to the increase in the chitosan, mineral contents and decrease in the organic content in the Portunus sanguinolentus shell powder due to chemical treatment, thus enhancing the bonding between the filler and fiber matrix with reduction of the void. A showcase stand was developed with the best performer, as an attempt in the perfection of application. The application is then analyzed using ANSYS to predict the deformation behavior when subjected to 0.25 kg, 0.5 kg and 1 kg loads.

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This work aims to optimize the mechanical performance of ramie and kenaf fibers in epoxy composites developed using the hand layup technique. Fiber reinforcement at 0-10 wt% and benzoyl chloride treatment at 0-5 wt% were incorporated with this composites. Taguchi-based grey relational analysis (GRA) and technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS) methods were used to determine the optimized conditions for overall mechanical properties of the developed composites. Optimization techniques concluded that 10 wt% ramie (R)/10 wt % kenaf (K) with 5 wt% benzoyl chloride treatment (T) based epoxy composites observed good mechanical properties with ultimate tensile strength of 37.39 MPa, ultimate flexural strength of 63.53 MPa, and impact strength of 70.36 J/m due to hybridization and the reduction in hydrophilic nature by the surface treatment process. The optimized GRA and TOPSIS combination with 10 wt% R/10 wt% K/5 wt % of T observed reduced water absorption nature with a contact angle of 64.72 . K E Y W O R D Sepoxy composite, grey relational analysis (GRA), kenaf, ramie, technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (TOPSIS)

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