The effects of elevated temperatures on the performance of glass-reinforced epoxy (GRE) pipes under multi-axial loadings were investigated. Finite element software was used to develop the layers of the winding angle on GRE composite pipes. The simulations of the closed-ended pipes' performance under internal pressure loadings of various hoop to axial stress interactions were observed, then the failure strength was illustrated in the form of a failure envelope. Five different stress ratios ranging from pure axial loading 0:1, 1:1, 2:1, 4:1 and pure hoop 1:0 were tested at elevated temperatures (room temperature (RT), 65°C and 95°C) respectively. The first ply failure (FPF) for GRE pipes was predicted based on Tsai-Wu failure criteria. The results show that the highest temperature reduced the strength of the GRE pipes since the hoop and axial stress decreased with increasing temperature and thus the mechanical properties of the GRE pipes were degraded with the increase of temperature. Both showed a strong dependence on the stress ratio and test temperatures. Moreover, as the temperature increases, the glass fibres become more ductile and cause the failure envelopes to shrink towards the origin and become slightly narrower to accommodate the increase in strength of the composite pipes. It is shown that the initial failure stress based failure envelope at elevated temperatures generally degraded, except for the 2:1 loading where the initial failure stress increased.

Empty fruit bunches (EFB) are one of the solid wastes produced by the palm oil industry, which is increasing rapidly. The aim of this paper is to analyse the viscosity of empty fruit bunch (EFB) bio-oil that can be extracted from all solid waste EFB as a sample, and a few processes were executed. The samples underwent two processes, which were pre-treatment and pyrolysis. The pre-treatment involved three processes, namely, cutting, shredding and sieving, which were necessary in order to prepare EFB into a particle size suitable for the reactor. After that, the samples were fed into the feedback reactor as feedstock for the pyrolysis process to produce bio-oil. Once the biooil was produced, its viscosity was tested using the Brookfield Viscometer in two conditions: before and after the chemical reaction. The bio-oil was treated by adding 10 ml and 20 ml of acetone respectively through the chemical reaction. The viscosity test was carried out at different temperatures, which were 25°C, 30°C, 35°C, 40°C, 45°C and 50°C respectively. The observed viscosity of the EFB bio-oil varied and was higher as the temperature decreased. In addition, the viscosity of the EFB bio-oil was higher when it reacted chemically with the acetone added. Therefore, the results showed that the chemical reaction with acetone has the potential to increase the viscosity of EFB bio-oil.

The paper discusses the crushing behavior of glass fibre reinforced epoxy (GRE) pipes under hydrothermal ageing condition. This study determines the behavior of the GRE pipes when subjected to different ageing periods and temperatures. Hydrothermal ageing has been found to cause degradation between resin and fibre interface thus causing the reduction in the strength of composite laminates. The pipes were subjected to hydrothermal condition to simulate and precipitate ageing by immersing the pipe samples in water at 80°C for 250, 500, and 1000 hours. Compression tests were carried out using Universal Testing Machine (UTM) for virgin condition and aged samples in accordance with ASTM D695 standard. The maximum force at the initial failure region is observed for each of the conditioned pipes. The results show that the strength of the matrix systems was considerably degraded due to the plasticization of the matrix system.

Nowadays composite material especially Glass fibre reinforced epoxy (GRE) composites is one of the most widely used composite materials in such areas, especially in the marine, building and oil industry due to their lightweight, high strength and chemical/corrosion resistant properties. The aim of this paper is to provide an improved understanding of the performance of glass fibre reinforced epoxy (GRE) pipe under combined pressure and axial loads. The performances of GRE composite pipes is investigated through finite element modelling of ultimate elastic wall stress test under multi-axial loading ranging from pure axial to pure hoop loadings. ANSYS software will be used for finite element modelling of GRE pipes. A stress-strain response was obtained for each winding angle and the results for modelling then compared with those experimental computed through laminate theory. It is also concluded that the experimental results stress, which represent the onset of non-linearity were very much dependent on the transverse and shear stress response, and these values were found to be consistent with the predicted values from the commonly used Tsai-Wu failure criterion.