title: Micromechanical modelling of oil palm empty fruit bunch fibres containing silica bodies.
abstract: Experimental and numerical investigation was conducted to study the micromechanics of oil palm empty fruit bunch fibres containing silica bodies. The finite viscoelastic-plastic material model called Parallel Rheological Network model was proposed, that fitted well with cyclic and stress relaxation tensile tests of the fibres. Representative volume element and microstructure models were developed using finite element method, where the models information was obtained from microscopy and X-ray micro-tomography analyses. Simulation results showed that difference of the fibres model with silica bodies and those without ones is larger under shear than compression and tension. However, in comparison to geometrical effect (i.e. silica bodies), it is suggested that ultrastructure components of the fibres (modelled using finite viscoelastic-plastic model) is responsible for the complex mechanical behaviour of oil palm fibres. This can be due to cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin components and the interface behaviour, as reported on other lignocellulosic materials.
authors.affiliation: Department of Process and Food Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Farah Nadia
authors.initials: FN
authors.lastname: Omar
authors.affiliation: Department of Process and Food Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia; Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40450 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Suhaiza Hanim
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Hanipah
authors.affiliation: Department of Process and Food Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Loo Yu
authors.initials: LY
authors.lastname: Xiang
authors.affiliation: Department of Process and Food Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia. Electronic address: afandi@upm.edu.my.
authors.forename: Mohd Afandi P
authors.initials: MAP
authors.lastname: Mohammed
authors.affiliation: Department of Process and Food Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Azhari Samsu
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Baharuddin
authors.affiliation: Centre of Computed Tomography and Industrial Imaging, Malaysia Nuclear Agency, 43000 Bangi, Selangor, Malaysia.
authors.forename: Jaafar
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Abdullah
mesh_terms: D028023:Arecaceae / Q000737:chemistry*; D002482:Cellulose; D005638:Fruit / Q000737:chemistry*; D008031:Lignin / Q000737:chemistry; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D011134:Polysaccharides / Q000737:chemistry; D011312:Pressure; D012822:Silicon Dioxide / Q000737:chemistry*; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D013718:Tensile Strength; D055114:X-Ray Microtomography
chemical_list: D011134:Polysaccharides; D012822:Silicon Dioxide; C007916:hemicellulose; D002482:Cellulose; D008031:Lignin
keywords: Finite-element-micromechanics; Silica-body-fibre-interface; X-ray-micro-tomography