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In Aceh Besar, Suka Makmur and Lam Phueot villages, lotus root souvenir manufacturing faces several obstacles such as inadequate marketing strategies and lack of skill in the process. Therefore, this initiative seeks to provide partners with production-related solutions by integrating technology with Rencong souvenir molds. The implementation team also performs socialization and consulting related to internet marketing of products to increase market access and outreach. Program objectives were achieved using the Participatory Rural Assessment Act (PRA). From this initiative, his Mitra Pak Majid of Rencong Souvenir Crafts was able to provide capital support in the form of a bulk casting business.

Community service activities are carried out to maintain water pumps in the Al Muhajirin Mushalla clean water facility in Blang Krueng Village, Aceh Besar District, to address the problem of the availability of clean water in the area. The project team carried out several stages during the week, including observation, problem identification, planning, implementation, and evaluation. Observations were made at clean water facilities to identify existing problems. The results showed that the water pump used in the clean water facility was damaged and not functioning properly. Therefore maintenance is needed to repair the water pump so that clean water facilities can function properly. After identifying the problem, the team plans to maintain the water pump by replacing damaged components and cleaning the contaminated parts. Clean water facilities in Mushalla Al Muhajirin can function properly after maintenance, and the availability of clean water in the area increases. Evaluation is carried out to determine the success of maintenance. The evaluation showed that the maintenance was successful in increasing the availability of clean water, and the local community felt that this improvement helped. In conclusion, the water pump maintenance project at Mushalla Al Muhajirin succeeded in increasing the availability of clean water. This community service project is expected to inspire and guide other communities in improving their clean water facilities.

The use of plastic and goods made of plastic have been rising in day to day. Increasing use of plastics is a consequence of the development of technology, industry and population. On one hand, the invention of plastic has a remarkable positive impact, because it has many advantages compared to other materials. But on the other hand, the plastic waste has negative impact that too worried, so its solutions need to be looked for. One of the alternative handling of plastic waste that currently extensively researched and developed is converting plastic waste into fuel. Converting plastic waste into fuel oil can be done with cracking process. There are three kinds of process that is hydro cracking, thermal cracking and catalytic cracking. Fuel oil produced from the cracking of plastic waste depending on the plastic type, cracking process used, catalyst type, pyrolisis temperature and condenser temperature.

In this paper, the mineral composition and magnetic behavior of nano magnetite (Fe3O4) extracted from beach were studied. The beach sand was collected from the Gampong Dayah coastal area, Banda Aceh and prepared by mechanical alloying method. The mineral compositions were investigated by XRD and XRF analysis tests. The XRF test showed that the sand mostly contain Fe3O4 in association with other isomorphous impurities, such as SiO2, TiO2, Al2O3 and some others minor minerals in varying proportions. Compare to XRD results, it was consistent with XRF, the phase compositions are mainly magnetite (Fe3O4). The XRD revealed that magnetite is the major mineral components in the Syiah Kuala sand. The electron microscope (SEM) identification showed the fine crystalline structure and the main morphology was micro-crystalline or agglomerate forms. The magnetic properties of the samples after milling showed there has been increasing in coercivity (Hc) and remanent (Br), while magnetic saturation (Ms) was decreased.

The process of forming furniture and house construction, the marble used produces a lot of waste in the form of marble powder. One solution offered to overcome this problem is to make a composite of marble's powder and resin. The purpose of this study was to determine the tensile strength and hardness of resin composites and marble's powder and determine the optimal value of the composition between marble's powder and resin. These composites were then tested to obtain mechanical properties such as yield strength, elastic modulus and hardness. Fracture surface observation by using SEM on the specimens was also conducted. The results showed that the optimal composition for composites is the composition between 60/40 and 70/30.

Private sectors have invested in the technology to grow some Gelidialian red algae families and also tried to convert the algae to pulp and paper over the last few years in order to replace raw materials from wood. Several modern systems with their all complexities which are similar to the wood pulp-based papermaking technology have been offered to overcome any recent issues settle in the converting process. Chemical bleaching agents have even been still a standard treatment that must be established for properly converting the algae pulp to a sheet of paper. In this present work, the two genus of red algae, called Gracilaria and Eucheuma, were simply processed to make pulps without use of any bleaching chemical agents. The potential use of pulps made of the red algae as raw materials for papermaking was mechanically studied by testing the sheets made of the red algae through a tensile test at a room temperature under 20 mm/min according to ASTM D 828-97 (2002). Tensile properties of the proposed algae-based paper sheets obtained under the constant rate are discussed. Tensile properties of the selected wood-based paper sheets obtained under the same condition are also presented in this paper. The results showed that pulps made of the red algae would be the alternative to those of the wood and other natural fibers as raw materials for papermaking. Doi: 10.12777/ijse.6.1.1-10 [How to cite this article: Arham, N.A., Mohamad, N.A.N., Jai, J., Krishnan, J., Noorsuhana Mohd Yusof, N.M. (2013). Application of Response Surface Methodology in Extraction of Bioactive Component from Palm Leaves (Elaeis guineensis). International Journal of Science and Engineering, 6(1),1-10. Doi: 10.12777/ijse.6.1.1-10

Experimental works using a drop weight impact test method have been performed on a circular sheet specimen to evaluate and to characterize the impact resistance of the sheet-type plastic components designed for automotive wheel covers. Evaluation has been conducted for a set of engineering plastics: polycarbonate (PC), acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and their blend (PC/ABS). The testing results showed that the PC/ABS blend specimens failed in brittle manner under higher impact speeds with very few of whitening zones. Secondary cracks captured perpendicular to fracture surface were also found in the mid-plane of the scattered PC/ABS blend specimens. Investigation is then focused on this blend and the testing results describe that impact resistance of the specimen made of this alternative material is determined by ABS not by PC. Combination of structures between PC and ABS through the thickness in the core due to their immiscibility was observed by scanning electron microscope (SEM) on the etched PC/ABS specimen. This latter result well correlates the results obtained from the testing. It therefore reveals that immiscibility between PC and ABS in the blend plays an important role in determining the impact resistance of the components. This paper also presents simulative results of the test obtained from a FEA work by introducing a 3D- layered finite element (FE) model of the PC/ABS specimen to take into account effect of a layer in the core on the behavior of the blend.

An instrumented-drop weight impact test carried out at room temperature under a range of loading rates was applied to study the deformation and failure behaviors of PC/ABS (50/50) blends. Actually, these blends have different type of ABS, one grade of the blends is the blend containing small-sized particles of rubber and another grade is the blend containing larger-sized particles of rubber in the ABS systems. Testing results showed that both of the blends generally exhibited similar behaviors but they were totally different under 3 m/sec. A weld line-like formation captured on the fracture surface was found in each of the blends. Preliminary study using scanning electron microscope (SEM) indicated that crack also propagated along the weld line. Fracture of the blends might be initially induced due to fracture of the weld lines. Hence, it has been suspected as a factor affecting behavior of the blends. Since existence of the weld line-like formation has not been found in fractured ABS materials, it is necessary to point out the complex relationship among of the ABS composition, the existence of the weld line and the weld line quality in the blends. A finite element (FE) simulation of the testing was carried in order to determine whether the weld line strength is significant enough affects the behaviors. Although the model was generated using estimated failure criterion for the weld line, the simulation results showed that weld line strength might influence the blends behavior.

Based on previous available constitutive models, a phenomenological constitutive model has been constructed and is proposed to describe the strain, strain rate and temperature dependentdeformation behavior of PC/ABS blends. In this paper, four quasi-static uniaxial tension tests of a specimen tested at different strain rates and temperatures were used to identify the constitutive model constants. By using the proposed constitutive model, predicting the stress-strain behavior of the PC/ABS blend tested at certain strain rate and different temperatures compares well to the behavior exhibited from the tests. From comparison between the DSGZ and the proposed models, proposed model shows a better prediction. Evaluation of the proposed constitutive model was also presented and it has revealed that the proposed model might have a potential to be used for predicting a wide range of temperatures and high strain rates behavior of PC/ABS blends.

Impact behavior of simply-supported circular thin plates made of PC/ABS (50/50) blends tested at room temperature by use of instrumented drop weight impact apparatus under different speeds: 2, 3, and 4m/sec has been studied. The blends have 10wt% content of rubber with rubber particle diameter of 270nm and of 150-170nm distributed in ABS. Features of the target are viewed to describe definite alteration of the plates induced by a hemispherical tip-ended cylindrical impactor and effect of rubber particle size distributed in the blends. It was found that the blends with a rubber particle diameter of 150-170nm were not in shattering and exhibited a unique crack shape at speed of 3m/sec. Simulation of the impact test was also performed using dynamic explicit finite element code of MSC. Dytran. In the simulation, the material was assumed isotropic and mass served as a rigid surface and an available material model in the finite element system, called piecewise linear plasticity, referring to a yield model of the von Mises was applied in the simulation for describing the large strain, non-linear behavior of the polymeric materials. Maximum plastic strain failure criterion was then used to simulate the impact failure. Contact between the impactor and the plate was applied and friction coefficient µ between the impactor and the plate was neglected. In order to study effect of friction coefficient value, additional simulation of the impact test has also been performed using µ = 0.3. Impact force-time histories of the blends obtained from the simulation were then verified to the impact test results and pointed out an evaluation of the use of the finite element analysis for predicting behavior of the blends under the impact loading.

Cassava, corn, sago and the other food crops have been commonly used as raw materials to produce green plastics. However, plastics produced from such crops cannot be tailored to fit a particular requirement due to their poor water resistance and mechanical properties. Nowadays, researchers are hence looking to get alternative raw materials from the other sustainable resources to produce plastics. Their recent published studies have reported that marine red algae, that has been already widely used as a raw material for producing biofuels, is one of the potential algae crops that can be turned into plastics. In this work, Eucheuma Cottonii , that is one of the red alga crops, was used as raw material to produce plastics by using a filtration technique. Selected latex of Artocarpus altilis and Calostropis gigantea was separately then blended with bioplastics derived from the red algae, to replace use of glycerol as plasticizer. Role of the glycerol and the selected latex on physical and mechanical properties of the red algae bioplastics obtained under a tensile test performed at room temperature are discussed. Tensile strength of some starch-based plastics collected from some recent references is also presented in this paper Doi : 10.12777/ijse.5.2.81-88 [ How to cite this article : Machmud, M.N., Fahmi, R., Abdullah, R., and Kokarkin, C. (2013). Characteristics of Red Algae Bioplastics/Latex Blends under Tension. International Journal of Science and Engineering , 5(2),81-88. Doi: 10.12777/ijse.5.2.81-88

Novel composites of clay/iron sand/rice husk ash (RHA) have been developed. Electric furnace was used to perform heat treatment on the composites to study the effect of sintering temperature on their apparent porosity and compressive strength. Two types of RHA with different bulk density were prepared to gain an understanding of the influence of apparent porosity on compressive strength of the heat-treated composites over a range of sintering temperatures. Heattreated composites, made of clay/iron sand and clay/RHA, were also prepared as a referenced material. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis was further performed tocomprehensively discuss the role of iron sand on apparent porosity and compressive strength of the heat-treated composites. The results show that the increase of sintering temperature reduces apparent porosity of the heat-treated composites. Reducing on the apparent porosity was then followed by the increase of compressive strength of the heat-treated composites. Compressive strength of the heat-treated composites was not sensitive to the sintering temperature up to 800 °C, and it would be more improved at the sintering temperature above 800 °C. This study concludes that such sintering temperature significantly improved apparent porosity and compressive strength of the composites due to use of iron sand.

Impact charateristics of simply-supported circular thin plates made of PC/ABS (50/50) blends having 10 wt% content of rubber with a rubber particle diameter of 270 nm called PA-1 and of 150–170 nm called PA-2 tested at room temperature by use of a drop weight impact apparatus under different speeds: 2, 3, and 4 m/sec has been studied. Features of the target were viewed to describe definite alteration of the plates induced by a hemispherical tip-ended cylindrical striker due to effect of rubber particle size distributed in the blends.