Mechanical characterization, modelling and application design of bamboo-polypropylene composites

Abstract

This research is focused on characterization, modelling and product designing from bamboo fiber reinforced polypropylene composite. Bamboo fiber of mesh size of − 80/+ 100 (180–225 μm) were blended with polypropylene in a twin screw extrusion system at different weight percentages of bamboo (10, 20, 30, 40, and 50%). In-house synthesized m-TMI-g-PP was used as the coupling agent. Mechanical characterization reveals a continuous increment in tensile strength, flexural strength and elastic modulus with increasing fiber content. At 50% bamboo content, tensile and flexural strengths increased by 36 and 64% respectively and elastic modulus increased by 300% with respect to virgin polypropylene. Scanning electron microscope images of the fractured surface of composite indicated effective wetting of bamboo fiber with polypropylene. Halpin–Tsai model was found to describe the relative modulus of the composites at different fiber content effectively. Macro mechanical approach in which the composite is assumed to be isotropic was used to simulate uniaxial tensile test. The simulation was performed using Hypermesh (a FEM preprocessor) and explicit solver LS-DYNA. The stress–strain behaviour predicted by material model MAT 24 was in close agreement with the experimental results. A portable toilet design is suggested from the developed composite material based on the simulation results.