Sisal Polyester Composites Research Articles

Comparative Study of Impact Strength Characteristics of Treated and Untreated Sisal Polyester Composites

In the present study both treated and untreated sisal polyester composites are tested to study its impact strength characteristics. ASTM D256 norms are followed to conduct the impact test on the specimens of 2 mm, 3 mm, 4 mm, 5 mm and 6 mm thicknesses for fiber volume of 10%, 15%, 20%, 25% and 30%. Random orientation of fibers was adopted. Length of fibers used in casting the specimen is as 10 mm. Here all the specimens are fabricated by using manually operated hot compression moulding technique. The results obtained from the present study have shown that impact strength increases with increase in the thickness. Untreated sisal polyester composite yielded its peak impact strength of 3.581 N-m at its 30% fiber volume fraction. Treated sisal polyester composite has shown highest impact strength of 1.962 N-m at its 30% fiber volume fraction.

Flammability and moisture absorption behavior of sisal-polyester composites

The risk of fire and water is inevitable so the performance of composites in building constructions should be at par with the code requirements. This paper researches on the fire and water resistance of untreated sisal fiber composites using polyester resin as matrix for different volume fractions of fiber viz. 5%, 10%, 15%, 20%, 25%, 30% and for two different thicknesses namely 3mm and 5mm. The panels of size 30cm*30cm were fabricated by compression molding technique. The investigation on fire resistance was done as per flammability test mentioned in ASTM D 635-03 standards. In this test, the rate of burning was found out in mm/min. The burning rate and the corresponding mass loss rates were found to decrease as the volume fraction of fibers increased. The moisture test was done as per ASTM D 570-98 standards. The moisture absorbed which was expressed in percentage was found to increase as the volume fraction of fibers increased.

Evaluation of the mechanical properties of sisal–polyester composites as a function of the polyester matrix formulation

AbstractIn this work a comparative study on the impact and tensile properties of polyester/sisal fiber reinforced composites was undertaken. The polyester matrix was used bare and modified with: (1) a silane coupling agent; (2) a flame retardant system; and (3) a blend of the silane agent and the flame retardant system. The experimental results show that the flame retardant acts as a particulate reinforcement to the polyester matrix and the silane coupling agent acts as a plasticizer. The simultaneous addition of these two compounds to the polyester resin tended to decrease the performance of the composites. The results obtained show that strength or toughness could be tailored, and although none of the composites manufactured with the modified polyester matrices showed a significant improvement on the fiber–matrix interface strength, a better compromise between impact and tensile properties was obtained with the silane modified matrix. The critical fiber volume fraction was also evaluated and shown to be less than 10% for the sisal–polyester composite investigated here. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 94: 1209–1217, 2004

Effect of a Two Step Fiber Treatment on the Flexural Mechanical Properties of Sisal-polyester Composites

Sisal fibers were chemically treated with a two-step treatment (first sodium sulfide aqueous solution and then acetic anhydride/acetic acid mixture) to promote better adhesion to a polyester resin matrix. The flexural behaviour of the composites was analyzed as a function of the time of immersion in distilled water, and there was an improvement for short times of immersion. The long term behaviour of the treated composites was, however, no better than that of the untreated ones. This could be because of the controlling role of plasticization of both the fibers and the resin matrix for the longer times of immersion.

The influence of chemical surface modification on the performance of sisal‐polyester biocomposites

AbstractThis article concerns the effectiveness of various types and degrees of surface modification of sisal fibers involving dewaxing, alkali treatment, bleaching cyanoethylation and viny1 grafting in enhancing the mechanical properties, such as tensile, flexural and impact strength, of sisal‐polyester biocomposites. The mechanical properties are optimum at a fiber loading of 30 wt%. Among all modifications, cyanoethylation and alkali treatment result in improved properties of the biocomposites. Cyanoethylated sisal‐polyester composite exhibited maximum tensile strength (84.29 MPa). The alkali treated sisal‐polyester composite exhibited best flexural (153.94 MPa) and impac strength (197.88 J/m), which are, respectively, 21.8% and 20.9% higher than the corresponding mechanical properties of the untreated sisal‐polyester composites. In the case of vinyl grafting, acrylonitrile (AN)‐grafted sisal‐polyester composites show better mechanical properties than methyl‐methacrylate (MMA)‐grafted sisal composites. Scanning electron microscopic studies were carried out to analyze the fiber‐matrix interaction in various surface‐modified sisal‐polyester composites.

Impact performance of sisal-polyester composites

Impact performance of sisal-polyester composites