Abstract
In this study, a fabric was manufactured consisting of 50% pineapple, 25% jute and 25% cotton fibers by weight, to make composites using polypropylene (PP) as a matrix material. We used compression molding technique, which kept 30% of the fabric content by total weight as the composite. The tensile strength (TS), tensile modulus (TM), elongation break (Eb%), bending strength (BS) and bending modulus (BM) were investigated. From analyzed data, it was found that the composite values of TS, TM, Eb%, BS and BM were 58 MPa, 867 MPa, 22.38%, 42 MPa and 495 MPa, respectively. The TS, TM, Eb%, BS and BM of the neat polypropylene sheet were 28 MPa, 338 MPa, 75%, 20 MPa and 230 MPa, respectively. Due to fabric reinforcement, composite values for TS, TM, BS and BM increased 107%, 156%, 110% and 115%, respectively in comparison with a polypropylene sheet. A water absorption test was performed by dipping the composite samples in deionized water and it was noticed that water absorption was lower for PP-based composites. For investigating the effect of alkali, we sunk the composites in a solution containing 3%, 5% and 7% sodium hydroxide alkali solutions by weight, for 60 min after which their mechanical properties were investigated. A degradation test was carried out by putting the samples in soil for six months and it was noticed that the mechanical properties of fabric/PP composites degraded slowly.
Highlights
Fabricating composites by using natural fibers has been of great interest because natural fiber is biodegradable and environment friendly [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]
It was observed that tensile modulus (TM) and bending modulus (BM) improved by 156% and 115% respectively over that of the matrix material PP
Motaleb et al stated that the Tensile strength (TS), TM, Eb%, bending strength (BS) and BM of Pineapple leaf fiber (PALF)/PP composite
Summary
Fabricating composites by using natural fibers has been of great interest because natural fiber is biodegradable and environment friendly [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14]. Composites are inexpensive and not harmful to the environment. The advantages of fiber reinforced materials (FRM) over unreinforced ones are well known, and their characteristics are useful in many fields, and as such, they are used for many applications. Continuous fiber reinforced composites are used in medical science. The most used fibers to reinforce composites are synthetic, but the results obtained with natural fibers are promising [19]
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