Optimization of molding process parameters for enhancing mechanical properties of jute fiber reinforced composites

Abstract

Compression molding is a manufacturing technique that is frequently and widely utilized in fabricating composites. However, bast fiber reinforced composites (BFRC) with good quality and high performance by compression molding are quite challenging because it is complicated to find suitable process parameters. Previous works on improving the mechanical performance of compression molded BFRCs normally considered the influence of a single process parameter and ignored the mutual effects of process parameters. To enhance the mechanical qualities of BFRCs and enlarge their applications, this paper studied the synergistic effects of two molding process parameters on the mechanical characteristics of jute reinforced polypropylene composites (jute/PP) from contour and surface plots through response surface methodology (RSM). The significance of each molding process factor on the mechanical behaviors of jute/PP was investigated by conducting the analysis of variance (ANOVA). Multi-parameter co-optimization achieved the optimal mechanical performance of molded jute/PP at 186.8°C, 5.6 MPa, and 10.1 min, which was consistent with experimental findings. This suggests that response surface equations obtained from RSM can accurately characterize the relationships between mechanical characteristics and molding parameters of jute/PP. The RSM provides a useful and reliable way to find the optimal process parameters for better mechanical behaviors.