Proceeding Of International Conference On Recent Innovations In Science, Engineering And Technology ICRISET14,

2nd & 3rd April 2014.

ANALYSIS OF THE MICROSTRUCTURE AND MECHANICAL RESISTANCE OF

LAMINATED POLYESTER COMPOSITES REINFORCED WITH CORN FIBER
S.Prakash 1, F.R.Femin 2, Dr.R.Christu Paul 3
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Immanuel Arasar College of Engineering, Nattalam
-629165. Tamil Nadu, India. sppraka@gmail.com
2
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Immanuel Arasar College of Engineering, Nattalam
-629165. Tamil Nadu, India. frfemin1983@rediffmail.com
3
Professor, C.S.I.Institute of Technology, Thovalai, K.K.Dist-629302 Tamil Nadu, India. r_christupaul@gmail.com
1

Recently environmental awareness, ecological concerns

and new legislations, bio-fiber-reinforced composites have
received increasing attention. The composites have many
advantages over traditional glass fiber or inorganic
mineral-filled materials, including lower cost, lighter
weight, environmental friendliness, and recyclability. Corn
fiber has similar characteristics to polyester staple fiber
and has the luster of silk, meanwhile its moisture regain
surpass polyester, so the fabric made of it is much
comfortable.Natural fibre reinforced composites are being
worked upon for various engineering applications. Various
natural fibres such as jute, sisal, palm, coir and corn are
used as reinforcements. Corn-based biodegradable
polymers that can be turned into plastics, fabrics and fibers
.The poor adhesion between fibre and matrix is commonly
encountered
problem
in
natural-fibre-reinforced
composites. To overcome this problem, specific physical
and chemical treatments were suggested for surface
modification of fibres by investigators In this paper
sufficient number of corn fiber biodegradable resin
composite specimen are fabricated as per the ASTM
standards and various mechanical properties such Tensile
strength and Impact test are studied.

better mechanical properties than poovan, kadhali and

mondhan [2]. So for this research purpose rasthali banana
fiber is used.
This research is to study the use of polylactic acid
(PLA) reinforced with banana fiber (BF) in producing
bioplastic composite with better mechanical properties
compared to PLA based plastic. The parameters that have
been considered in this study are the effect of fiber length
on reinforcement. The fiber loading involved are 40% of
fibers ratio over polymer.The mechanical properties were
studied on both of untreated and treated BF reinforced
composite for different fiber length that have been mention
earlier.

Key words: Natural Fibres, corn fibre,Tensile Test,Compressive

2.2 Fiber surface treatments

Untreated and chemically treated banana fibers
were used for fabricating the composites. Banana fibers were
subjected to different surface treatments with alkali, benzoyl
chloride KMnO4 and triethoxy octyl silane (TEOS) .Banana
fibers were chopped into 8 mm length before giving the
treatment.

Test, Fatique Test.

I.INTRODUCTION
Natural fiber reinforced has the potential to improve
the physical or mechanical properties for a wide range of
potential application.The properties of some natural fibers
have been investigated and the reported results showed
promising utilization of some of them as an alternative to
glass fiber in many application.The banana trunk fiber is a
local waste material that can be utilized as a composite
material in order to reduce this local waste.The mechanical
properties of various natural fibers such as Sisal, Roselle,
Banana, Date palm, Coconut and Reed are studied and it is
found that banana fibers have better tensile strength. They
stated that the tensile strength of banana fiber is about 430
Mpa[1].
Mechanical Properties of various varieties Banana
Fiber such as poovan, kadhali, mondhan and rasthali are
studied and it is found that rasthali banana fiber having

II.EXPERIMENTAL
2.1 Materials
Polylactic acid(PLA) resin was obtained from
Harita NT ltd.,Chennai, India. Banana fibers(BF) was
obtained from Kaliyal fiber society and Handicraft
thiruvattar, Tamilnadu, India. The chemicals used for the
modification of banana fiber were of commercial grade.The
silane was obtained from laboratory suppliers, Trivandrum,
India.

2.2.1 Alkali treatment

The chopped fibers were soaked in a stainless steel vessel
containing alkali at different concentration (2% and 10%) for
hour. The fibers were washed thoroughly with water to
remove the excess of NaOH on the fibers. Final washing
was done with water containing little acetic acid. Fibers were
dried in an air oven at 700C for 3 hours.
2.2.2. KMnO4 Treatment
The alkali treated fibers were soaked in 0.5% KMnO 4
acetone for half an hour. The fibers were decanted and dried
air.

81
Department of EEE & Mechanical Engg., Immanuel Arasar JJ college of Engineering

Proceeding Of International Conference On Recent Innovations In Science, Engineering And Technology ICRISET14,
2nd & 3rd April 2014.

2.3 Composite fabrication

The treated Banana fiber (BF) of different fiber
length of 2 mm, 4 mm, 6 mm, 8 mm respectively was
compounded with Polyactic acid (PLA) 40% w/w in the Zblade mixer with slow spped and mixing chamber
temperature of 1800C for 10min. BF-PLA composites were
scrapped from the inverter then thermoform using hot press
machine at 1800 C with the thickness of 3 mm. Tensile Test
specimens of diameter 165*13*3 mm,as per ASTM D 638
were used to measure the tensile strength
tensile strength of the sample was measured by the universal
testing machine using a cross-head speed of 5 mm/min and
250 mm extensometer .Impact test specimens of dimension
63.5*12.7*3 mm were taken for measurement of impact test
as per ASTM D 256.The specimens were notched at an angle
of 450 and depth of 2.54 mm using a notch cutter prior to
test.
III. RESULT AND DISCUSSION
Fig. Shows the variation in tensile strength of
composite with the change in length of the fiber. In general
the thermo set composites showed an increasing trend in
their mechanical properties with the fiber length. However
the optimal condition is at a fiber length of 4 mm
(160MPa).The fiber length from 6 mm decreasing tendency
in tensile strength has been attributed to two situations:
namely, the existence of defects, such as voids, and week
interface bonding between matrix and reinforcement.
Moreover the elongation at break of composite was not
affected significantly by increasing the fiber.
Length shows in fig. The percent elongation at break of the
composites is lower than that of the matrix. This could be
affected of low fracture strain and the poor adhesion between
the matrix and the fibers.
The effect of surface treatment on the impact strength of
biocomposites is displayed in table. It is evident that surface
treatments enhance the impact strength of bio composites
significantly. As compared with untreated fiber, nearly
8.34% improvement in the impact was observed when
NaOH treated banana fiber used as reinforcement. This
confirms an increased fiber matrix adhesion between the
matrix and fibers upon surface treatment.
The role of the matrix in the fiber-reinforced composite is to
transfer load to the stiff fiber through shear stress at the
interface. This process requires a good bond between the
polymeric matrix fibers. The interface between fiber and
matrix is shown in fig.

The load acting on the matrix has to be transferred

to the reinforcement via the interface. Thus reinforcement
must be strongly bonded to the matrix if there are to be
imparted to the composite. It is also noticed that the fiber
failed by tearing but no interfacial failure is abserved.This in
an indication that the adhesion between fiber and matrix was
not lost and the failure process was dominated by the matrix
material properties.
IV.CONCLUSIONS
In this paper the mechanical properties of banana
fiber reinforced PLA composite have been measured. Based
on the results, it was found that the tensile strength showed
an increasing trend as the fiber length was increased but the
elongation at break of the composite was not affected
significantly by the fiber length. The optimum of fiber length
in epoxy resin to obtain the highest tensile strength was
found at 4 mm in fiber length. It was also found the void,
fiber length and interfacial adhesion between fiber matrixes
can affect the mechanical properties of the composite.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The author wish to thank Dr.R.Christu Paul for their
constant support to complete this work.
REFERENCES
[1] D.Brindha, S.Vinodhini K.Alarmelumangai and
N.S.Malathy Physico-chemical properties of fibers from
banana varieties after scouring Indian Journal of
Foundamental and Applied Life Sciences ISSN Sciences
ISSN: 2231-6345, 2012 Vol.2 (1) January-March
[2] D.Chandramohan and K.Marimuthu Drilling of natural
fiber particle reinforced polymer composite material
International journal of Advanced Engineering, Research and
Studies, IJAERS/Vol.I / Issue I/ October-December,
2011/134-145
[3] Akmal Hadi Ma Radzi, Noor Akmal Mohamad Saleh
Banana Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites, 93-98,
2011, Empowering Science, Technology and Innovation
Towards a Better Tomorrow.
[4] Yeng-Fong Shih and Chien-Chung Huang, Polylactic
acid (PLA)/Banana fiber (BF) biodegradable green
composites.
[5] Dale Wilson, The Johns Hopkins University, Leif
A.Carlsson. Mechanical Testing of Fiber-Reinforced
Composites ASM Hand book Volume 8, 2000.

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Department of EEE & Mechanical Engg., Immanuel Arasar JJ college of Engineering