Prasad 2018 IOP Conf. Ser. Mater. Sci. Eng. 402 012103 PDF
Prasad 2018 IOP Conf. Ser. Mater. Sci. Eng. 402 012103 PDF
Prasad 2018 IOP Conf. Ser. Mater. Sci. Eng. 402 012103 PDF
1. Introduction
The applications of plastics in recent days are ranging from daily usage articles to complex
mechanical components and structures. Plastics are being widely used because of their high strength to
weight ratio, low maintenance, durability, low water absorption and high stiffness. Synthetic fibres such
as nylon, aramid and glass are being used as reinforcement for plastics. Because of shortage and rise in
price of petroleum and it’s by products, there exists a need for an alternative to synthetic fibres. So
natural fibres serves this purpose, presently fibres extracted from plant and animal base are providing a
good alternative to synthetic fibres.
Natural fibers have been used as reinforcement in composites in place of synthetic fibers because
they are are cheaper, bio-degradable and have no environmental pollution [1, 2]. Furthermore Natural
fibres are a good substitute for synthetic fibres in the future. Natural fibres are widely used in
applications ranging from aerospace, automobile and construction industry etc. These fibres are either
extracted from plants or derived from animals. Plant based natural fibres such as jute, coir, banana, sisal,
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2nd International conference on Advances in Mechanical Engineering (ICAME 2018) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 402 (2018) 012103 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/402/1/012103
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etc., which are abundantly available in Indian subcontinent and can be exported to other countries too.
These fibres are now being used for the production of yarns, ropes, and mats etc. Various gift articles
like wall hangings, table mats and also handbags are being made by suing these fibres. Fibres such as
cotton, banana, and pineapple are also used to make cloth as well as in paper industry. The hydrophilic
nature of these natural fibres results in absorption of moisture content. So these fibres have to be treated
well before the fabrication or usage. Alkali treat treatment is the most commonly used treatment on
natural fibres to remove the moisture content. Plant fibres consist of various natural substances along
with cellulose. The most important one is lignin. The structure and morphology of plant fibres can be
increased by their lignin content. Degree of polymerization is one of the main characteristic of plant
fibre. Shell and wood floor are being used as fillers in polymers due to their exceptional properties such
as less shrinkage during moulding and high creep resistance.
Sapuam et al [3] have studied the application of natural fillers and fibres in composites like
coconut coir, jute and palm, as the reinforcements in composites. Luo and Netravali [4] observed the
tensile and flexural properties of the natural fibre based epoxy composites with different pineapple fibre
volume fractions and compared with the epoxy resin. The use of natural fibres helps in reduction of
weight and energy required for fabrication of composite. These natural fibres are also economical and
lower the fabrication cost by around 5% in comparison with fibre glass-reinforced components. The
properties of natural fibre reinforced composites are mainly influenced by amount of filler present and
content of fibre. Kulkarni et al. [5] have studied the mechanical properties of banana fibre. Flavio et al.
[6] observed that natural fibres such as sisal and jute fibres provide as alternative to conventional
materials such as glass and carbon fibres because of their low cost and abundant in nature. George et al.
[7] observed that the stability of the composite material compared to sisal fibre may be due to high fibre
matrix interaction. Therefore, suitable parameters and processing techniques must be followed for better
composite combinations. Natural fibers consist of cellulose, hemi cellulose and lignin. This cellulose
covers by hemi cellulose and lignin. This is an amorphous structure. Due to this cellulose could not
make direct links with matrix material. Cellulose forms strong links with glucose. This nature is called
hydrophilic nature [8, 9]. This will results in a week interface between fiber and matrix. In order to solve
this problem chemical pretreatment was suggested by many researchers. This chemical treatment
reduces the hemicellulose and lignin content. It pays way for direct contact between cellulose and matrix.
Rong et al. [10] studied the application of various chemical treatments (alkalization, acetylation) on sisal
fiber epoxy composites and found that chemical treatment results in better improvement of adhesion
between fiber and matrix. Applications of Banana fibres includes ropes, mats etc. Banana fibres are
readily available in various parts of subcontinent. The processing of banana fibres is also easy; they can
be easily extracted from banana stem. The physical and chemical composition of Banana fibre is shown
in Table 1.
Applications of palm fibre includes roof for huts, mats and material to provide a covering
Cyperus pangorei fibre finds applications in broom materials, table mats and house hold decorates.
Sponge gourd fibre is used as material for cleaning the body by rubbing against it. It can also be used to
clean the dishes and utensils.
Table 1. The physical and chemical composition of Banana fibre. [11]
Moisture Ash Carbon Water Tensile Lignin Cellulose Hemi
Content Content Content Absorption Strength cellulose
(wt %) (wt %) (wt %) (wt %) (MPa) (wt %) (wt %) (wt %)
2
2nd International conference on Advances in Mechanical Engineering (ICAME 2018) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 402 (2018) 012103 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/402/1/012103
1234567890‘’“”
2. Methodology
The aim is to replace the use of the synthetic fibres by natural fibres to minimize the effect of
the pollution caused due to the synthetic fibres. For this study, natural fibres such as banana, cyperus
pangorei, palm and sponge gourd are used with their different combinations. The banana fibre is taken
as the base fibre and rest all are used to form the composite with it. The binder used is epoxy resin (CIBA
LY5561) mixed with hardener HY9511. The fabrication process is done using the hand-layup method,
where the fibres in the form of sheets are put on each other with epoxy and hardener mixture in between
forming the sandwich structure. Continuous pressure is applied onto the sheets to remove the extra
binding material. The aim during the fabrication is to keep the amount of the fibre high and amount of
epoxy is to be kept as low as possible. The same procedure is used to form the composites of the
following combinations, such as banana +palm, banana + sponge gourd and banana + cyperus pangorei.
After the fabrication is done, the composite is left to cure for two to three days by applying some
continuous pressure on it. The composite sheet then obtained is removed and cut into different specimen
according to ASTM Standard for testing.
First of all the sponge gourd fibre is treated with the NaOH solution to remove the moisture
content. The fibre is then dried under the sun to remove the leftover moisture content. The fibres are
then ready for the fabrication by hand-layup method. In this method, the corresponding fibres are
arranged in a sandwiched pattern with epoxy resin and hardener in between the fibre sheets. The binder
and the hardener are mixed in the ratio of 10:1. The fibre sheets are arranged in such a way that they are
cross linked to each other. Each fibre sheet is kept up other after applying some epoxy resin on the
previous fibre sheet. Three layers of such combinations are formed. The excessive epoxy resin is drained
out using a roller. The final composite sheet is applied with some pressure and is left to cure for two to
three days.
The alkali treatment of fibres is done using 10% NaOH Solution which is shown in figure 1.
The hand layup process for fabricating the composites is also shown in the above figure. The table 3
shows the width and thickness of the specimen used by comparing with three samples from each of the
three combinations and taking average of the width and the thickness of three combinations of the fibres.
The average width and thickness are considered for rule of mixtures for epoxy and fibres.
3
2nd International conference on Advances in Mechanical Engineering (ICAME 2018) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 402 (2018) 012103 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/402/1/012103
1234567890‘’“”
Machine (UTM). The test sample is placed in the UTM and tension is applied until the fracture of the
specimen. Stress vs. Strain curve is plotted.
4
2nd International conference on Advances in Mechanical Engineering (ICAME 2018) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 402 (2018) 012103 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/402/1/012103
1234567890‘’“”
The Dimension of the fabricated specimens are shown in table 2. The test specimens for
mechanical testing are shown in figure 3. The strength values from experimental testing are shown in
table 3.
4. Conclusion
In this experimental study, the banana fibres are used as a reinforcing material in combination
with sponge gourd fibre, palm fibre and cyperus pangorei fibre in epoxy matrix, the composites have
been fabricated and mechanical testing such as tensile, flexural, impact and water absorption has been
carried out on these composites. From the experimental results, the following conclusions have been
drawn: All the three composites have gained an increase in their tensile strength by two fold. The
maximum value of tensile strength is for banana-sponge gourd composite that is 40.125 MPa that is
5
2nd International conference on Advances in Mechanical Engineering (ICAME 2018) IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Materials Science and Engineering 402 (2018) 012103 doi:10.1088/1757-899X/402/1/012103
1234567890‘’“”
increasing the tensile strength of banana by 13 times. Even the flexural rigidity of the banana fibre has
been increased by 3 times that is 68MPa but in the case of banana-sponge gourd composite there is an
increase by 9 times. The compressive strength has also got increased by 3 times the highest being
300MPa.Composite with Sponge gourd + Banana as reinforcement with epoxy matrix has got the
maximum tensile flexural and impact strength. This combination can be compared with the synthetic
fibres for various applications.
5. References
[1] Susheel K 2009 Pretreatments of natural fibers and their application as reinforcing material in
polymer composites- A review, Journal Polymer Engineering and Science. 49, 1253-1272
[2] Rajesh M 2016 Dynamic mechanical analysis and free vibration behavior of intra-ply woven
natural fiber hybrid polymer composite, Journal of Reinforced Plastics and composites. 35(3),
228-242
[3] Sapuan SM 2003 Mechanical properties of epoxy/coconut shell filler particle composites, Arab
Journal of Science and Engineering. 28(2B), 171–181
[4] Luo S 2004 Mechanical and thermal properties of environmentally friendly green composites
made from pineapple leaf fibres and poly (hydroxybutyrate-co-valerate) resin, Polymer
Composites. 20(3), 367–378
[5] Kulkarni 1983 Mechanical properties of banana fibre, Journal of Material Science. 18(8), 2290-
2296
[6] Flavio 2010 Physical and mechanical properties of durable sisal fibre cement composites,
Construction and Building Materials. 24(5), 777-785
[7] George 1996 Thermo gravimetric and dynamic mechanical thermal analysis of pineapple fibre
reinforced polyethylene composites, Journal of Thermal Analysis. 47(4), 1121-1140
[8] X. Li, 2007 Chemical treatments of natural fiber for use in natural fiber reinforced composites:
A review, Journal of Polymer Environment. 15(1), 25-33
[9] John, 2008 Bio fibers and bio composites, Carbohydrate Polymers. 71, 343-364
[10] Zhi, 2001 The effect of fiber treatment on the mechanical properties of unidirectional sisal
reinforced epoxy composites, Science and technology. 61, 1437–1447
[11] Mukhopadhyay S 2008 Effect of ageing of sisal fibers on properties of sisal-polypropylene
composites, Polymer degradation and stability. 93 (11), 2048-2051