JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #59 - August/September 2010 - 24

BUSINESS
Trends

Mechanical properties of natural-fibre-reinforced composites
Natural fibres are now considered as a suitable alternative to glass fibre, due to their advantages, which include low cost, high strength-to-weight ratio, and recyclability. Combining natural fibres with glass fibre also decreases the usage of glass fibre. In this investigation, hybrid glass-/sisal-fibre composites were fabricated using the hand lay-up method. The tensile, flexural and impact strength of the resulting composites were tested using a universal testing machine (UTM). It was concluded that the sisal-glass hybrid composites exhibit better tensile, flexural and compression strength.
moulding, extrusion moulding, and hand lay-up, are available for naturalfibre composite materials. Injection moulding improves the fibre dispersion, hence increasing the tensile and flexural properties. However, extrusion and injection moulding have detrimental effects on the properties of natural fibres. The objectives of this work were 1) to fabricate natural-fibre-reinforced composites with various layer configurations and 2) to analyze properties like tensile, flexural and impact strength. A Life Cycle Assessment was then performed on these materials in connection with an application for plastic transport pallets. reinforcement, and a polymer-based resin as matrix. The fabrication process consisted in pouring a resin mixture over a polyethylene sheet, placing the sisal fibre over it, pouring more resin mixture over that, applying the glass fibre, pouring more resin mixture again, and then covering these layers with another polyethylene sheet.

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR: P. SIVASUBRAMANIAN, LECTURER, MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, SAINTGITS COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING, IN COLLABORATION WITH: A. ALAVUDEEN, ASST PROFESSOR, DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, KALASALINGAM UNIVERSITY, M. THIRUCHITRAMBALAM, PROFESSOR AND DEAN, DEPARTMENT OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING, TAMILNADU COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING

atural fibres are now regarded as a serious alternative to glass fibre for use as reinforcements in composite materials. Their advantages include low cost, low density, high strength-to-weight ratio, resistance to breakage during processing, low energy content and recyclability. The properties of natural-fibre-based composites can be affected or modified by a number of factors such as fibre combinations, processing method, fibre volume fraction, aspect ratio, water absorption, etc. The process parameters and their influence on the final properties vary with different fibre-matrix combinations. The fabrication method has a significant impact on the resulting properties. Various processing methods, e.g. compression moulding, injection

Fig.1: Composite combining one sisal layer plus one glass layer

Manufacturing process
The manufacturing process used involved the use of hand lay-up to produce composites with different layer configurations. The materials used were a general-purpose polyester resin, a methyl ethyl ketone accelerator, a cobalt catalyst, polyvinyl/polyethylene sheets, glass plates, glass fibres, and sisal fibres. A double-layer composite and two types of triple-layer composite were produced.

Triple-layer system
For the triple-layer system, the reinforcement consisted either of two layers of sisal with a layer of glass fibre in between, or a layer of sisal fibre between two layers of glass fibre. A polymer-based resin was used as matrix.

Two sisal layers/one glass-fibre layer
For this type of triple-layer composite, the resin mixture was poured over the polyethylene sheet, then covered with a layer each of sisal fibre, resin, glass fibre, resin, sisal fibre, and resin. This

Double-layer system
For the double-layer system, both sisal and glass fibre were used as

jec composites magazine / No59 August - September 2010

JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #59 - August/September 2010

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #59 - August/September 2010