Natural Fibre Project Report - Assignment Solution

INTRODUCTION

The interest in using natural fibres such as different plant fibres and wood fibres as reinforcement in plastics has increased dramatically during last few years. With regard to the surrounding aspects it would be very interesting if natural fibres could be used instead of glass fibres as reinforcement in some structural applications.

Natural fibres have many advantages compared to glass fibres, for example they have low density, and they are recyclable and biodegradable. Additionally they are renewable raw materials and have relatively high strength and stiffness. Their low-density values allow producing composites that combine good mechanical properties with a low specific mass.

In tropical countries fibrous plants are available in abundance.  Fibre reinforced polymer composites have many applications as a class of structural materials because of their ease of fabrication, relatively low prize and higher mechanical properties compared to polymer resins. These composites are considered as replacements for metal materials where the association of metallic fibre with polymeric matrix is attractive material for electronic packaging applications. The combination of reinforcement with high thermal conductivity embedded in a resin matrix with low thermal conductivity is desirable to dissipating the heat flux for electronic packaging components. 

Studies on the mechanical properties of short fibre reinforced polymer composites have shown that both fibre length distribution and fibre orientation distribution play very important role in determining the mechanical properties. Natural fibre composites combine plant- derived fibres with a plastic binder. 

The natural fibre components may be wood, sisal, hemp, coconut, thread, kenaf, flax, jute, abaca, banana fibres, Bamboo, wheat straw or other fibrous material. The advantages of natural fibre composites include lightweight, low-energy production, and environmental friendly. The use of natural fibres reduces weight by 10% and lowers the energy needed for production by 80%, while the cost of the component is 5% lower than the comparable fibre glass-reinforced component.  

In the past, composites of coconut fibre/natural rubber latex were extensively used by the automotive industry. How-ever, during the seventies and eighties, newly developed synthetic fibres due to better performance gradually substituted cellulose fibres. There has been a renewed interest in using these fibres as reinforcement materials, to some extent in the plastic industry. This resurgence of interest may be attributed to the increasing cost of plastics and the environmental aspects associated with using renewable and biodegradable materials. 

Sisal fibre is fairly coarse and unsuitable. It has godly ability, durability, strength to stretch, affinity for certain dyestuffs and resistance to regress in seawater. Sisal ropes and twines are widely used for marine, agronomic, transport and general industrial use.  

Banana fibre at present is a waste product of banana cultivation. Hence, without any including cost input, banana fibre can be obtained for industrial purposes. Banana fibre is found to be good reinforcement in polyester resin. The properties of the composites are strongly influenced by the fibre length. However, banana fibres are associated with some challenges including high moisture uptake, low thermal stability and low bonding with polymers.

In this experiment we have taken composition of  60% of epoxy and 40% of fibre(which include both sisal and banana) because from the literature survey, both banana and sisal individually with 60% epoxy shows the optimum results in mechanical properties. Hence here is  to determination of mechanical properties of  both fibre combination with 60% epoxy.

2.LITERATURE SURVEY

J.B.Zhong et al (2007) He experimented Alkali-treated sisal fibres were used as novel reinforcement to obtain composites with self-synthesized ureaformaldehyde resin as matrix phase. The composites were prepared by means of compression molding, and then the effects of sisal loading on mechanical properties such as impact strength, flexural strength, and wear resistance were investigated.

Lina Herrera-Estrada et al (2008)  He Established and optimize a process for the production of banana fibre reinforced composite materials with a thermoset, suitable for automotive and transportation industry applications .He chosen banana fibre with polyester and epoxy resin and shows a various mechanical properties and also suggested that water absorption is also dependent upon the fibre/matrix interaction. 

M.Sakthivel et al (2013) He determined the mechanical properties of individual fibre (banana,coir,sisal) with epoxy resin. After the experimental result he suggested that  banana reinforced natural composites is the best natural composites among the various combination and he also added that this combination  can be used for manufacturing of automotive seat shells among the other natural fibre combinations.

.K.Gupta, et al (2014) He  investigated the tensile and flexural properties of sisal fibre reinforced epoxy composite. This composite is prepared by using hand layup method with 15,20,25 and 30 wt % sisal fibres into epoxy matrix. He suggested from his experimental value that are found to be improves in case of unidirectional as compared to the mat form.

1. Venkatasubramanian, et al (2015)  He analysed  mechanical properties of  Abaca-banana-glass hybrid composites. He  concluded that the hybrid composites having the combination of two natural fibres (abaca and banana) with glass fibre reinforced with the matrix of Ortho-phthalic resin possess good mechanical properties resulting to the manufacture of industrial components where load-bearing capacity is one of the essential requirements