Tensile Strength Enhancement of the Bamboo Fiber Hand Sheet by Fiber Arrangement

Abstract

In order to improve the tensile strength of bamboo hand sheets used as reinforcement in bio composite materials, bamboo fibers have to be arranged roughly in the same direction. However, the classical method for forming the bamboo hand sheet (using L’HOMARGY machine) is not efficient to align the fibers. The objective of this work is to improve the method for forming the suitable arranged direction of the bamboo hand sheets. The bamboo strips were treated with a 6% NaOH solution at 120oc for 2 hours before extracting as individual bamboo fibers. These bamboo fibers were then formed as bamboo hand sheet by a dynamic laboratory sheet former (Mecaform, EP MECA, France). The given hand sheets were then cut along different angles (0, 45, and 90 degrees), and ten samples of each unidirectional and classical bamboo hand sheet were tested for the tensile strength according to ISO 1924-1. It was found that the tensile strength and the tensile modulus of bamboo hand sheets are correlated. The tensile strength and the tensile modulus of the 0-degree arranged bamboo hand sheets are double improved compare with the classical bamboo hand sheets.