Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t
Article history: Natural ber composite materials are one such capable material which replaces the conventional and
Received 5 August 2011 synthetic materials for the practical applications where we require less weight and energy conservation.
Received in revised form 26 March 2012 The present paper, which emphasis the importance of the newly identied snake grass bers which are
Accepted 1 April 2012
extracted from snake grass plants by manual process. In this paper, the tensile properties of the snake
Available online 6 April 2012
grass ber are studied and compared with the traditionally available other natural bers. The mixed
chopped snake grass ber reinforced composite is prepared by using the isophthallic polyester resin
Keywords:
and the detailed preparation methodology is presented. Fiber pull-outs on the fractured specimen during
A. Fibers
A. Polymermatrix composites
the physical testing of the composites are also investigated. The experimental evidence also shows that
B. Mechanical properties the volume fraction increases the tensile, exural strength and modulus of the snake grass ber reinforce
D. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) composite.
Snake grass ber 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction et al. [7] suggested that the tensile strength of ax ber bundles
were strongly depends on the clamping length. The compressive
Global market is promptly moving towards the energy conser- properties were obtained by the loop test with the decortication
vation and energy reduction process. Generally the natural bers process. Kuruvilla et al. [8] also worked on the natural ber rein-
were frequently used to reduce the weight of the components forced composite. The tensile strength and modulus of the longitu-
i.e. the bers are reinforced with the suitable matrix. In the aspect dinal and random orientated ber composite were studied and
of cost, renewable and biodegradability, the natural plant bers compared. Igor et al. [9] investigated the importance of phormium
have plenty of advantages when compare to the synthetic bers. (ax ber)/epoxy laminated composite with short ber and long -
Several authors carried out their research in the area of natural - ber. Various chemical compositions of the bers were compared
bers. Athijayamania et al. [1] extracted the roselle and sisal bers with the other natural bers. Jayabal and Natarajan [10] analyzed
by simple manual water treatment process. The experimental ten- the tensile, exural and impact properties of the non woven coir -
sile and exural strength results were compared with the hirsch ber reinforced composites with various ber lengths and ber con-
theoretical model. Later, Bakare et al. [2] studied the mechanical tents. The results were used to generate a nonlinear quadratic
properties of the sisal ber rubber seed oil polyurethane compos- regression model and optimized the ber length and ber content
ite, with and with-out water treatment process. Cao and Wu [3] using a commercially available statistical tool.
followed the weibull distribution to nd out the optimum strength Mathur [11] prepared the sisal, jute and coir ber reinforced
of the bamboo ber with the KS test. Gonzalez and Ansell [4] composites with unsaturated polyester/epoxy resin. Murali Mohan
suggested that the mechanical properties of chemically treated Rao et al. [12] extracted and processed the newly identied
henequen ber epoxy composite produces similar results as like elephant grass ber by manual and chemical methods. They ob-
the untreated ber composite. Silva et al. [5] investigated the served that the chemically extracted bers have higher tensile
tensile properties of the sisal ber for the different ber gauge strength than the raw bers but the difference between those val-
length. Herrera-Franco and Valadez-Gonzalez [6] concluded that ues was very less. Murali Mohan Rao and Mohan Rao [13] also
the stress distribution between the bers and matrix for a short processed the vakka bers from the foliage tree of sheath leaves
discontinuous ber were better than the continuous bers. The by simple manual method. The result shows that the percentage
importance of the short ber composites was also discussed. Bos of moisture absorption was higher in vakka ber than the date
and bamboo ber. Obi Reddy et al. [14] prepared the composites
Corresponding author. by using the leaf sheath of the coconut tree and studied its
E-mail address: tpsathish@kongu.ac.in (T.P. Sathishkumar). signicance with and without chemical treatment process. Rakesh
0266-3538/$ - see front matter 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.compscitech.2012.04.001
1184 T.P. Sathishkumar et al. / Composites Science and Technology 72 (2012) 11831190
et al. [15] investigated the strength of the banana ber reinforced effects of the long and discontinuous ber reinforced polypropyl-
composites with the help of soy protein resin. They concluded that ene bio-composites by utilizing the compressive mold. The theo-
the mechanical properties of the composites were strongly retical model values for the kenaf and jute ber composites were
depends on the ber volume fraction. Rigoberto et al. [16] investi- also compared. Satyanarayana et al. [22] compared the physical
gated the signicance of the natural ber composites by making it and chemical properties of the various natural bers. These bers
as a housing panel. Random orientation technique was adopted to were reinforced with the polymer and epoxy resin composites.
archive the isotropic behavior of the nature ber reinforced com- The cotton/ polymer and jute/epoxy/polymer composites were
posites. Sergio et al. [17] suggested that the different interior and prepared and its signicance was reported. Sreenivasan et al.
exterior components of the automobiles can be replaced with the [23] investigated the tensile, exural and impact properties of
help of natural ber reinforced composites. Shinji et al. [18] also randomly oriented short Sansevieria cylindrica ber/polyester
investigated the mechanical properties of kenaf natural bers. (SCFP) composites.
Xue and Lope [19] observed that the structural stability and adhe- Most of the previous literatures presented the signicance of
sion properties in the reinforced composite were improved by newly developed bers that have used to prepare the composites
adopting the various chemical treatment processes. Kiruthika and and also optimized the ber length, volume and weight fractions.
Veluraja [20] analyzed the tensile strength of the various banana The bers were randomly orientated during the composite prepa-
plant bers and compared the results with and with out chemical ration. In this paper, one such natural ber is extracted from the
treatment processes. Byoung-Ho et al. [21] briey investigated the naturally available plants; the properties of the prepared materials
are tested and compared with the other existing natural bers as
shown in Table 1. Snake grass bers are the newly identied ber
which is extracted from the snake grass plants (Sansevieria ehren-
Table 1
Comparison of the tensile properties of snake grass ber with other natural bers. bergii) by simple manual and biodegradable treatment. The snake
grass is a new plant in brous form and it is abundantly available
Fiber name Density Diameter Tensile Tensile % Elongation
in southern part of the INDIA. This work is also extended to fabri-
(kg/m3) (lm) strength modulus
(MPa) (GPa) cate the reinforced composite using the polyester resin to study its
mechanical properties.
Cotton 1600 287597 5.512.6 310
[19,22]
Ramie [19] 1500 220938 44128 23
2. Experiments
Flax [7,19] 1500 345 27.680 1.23.2
1500
Hemp [19] 1480 550900 70 1.6 2.1. Fiber materials
Jute [19,12] 1460 393800 1030 1.51.8
Sisal 1450 50300 227400 920 214 The length of the snake grass plants that grown in the eld
[5,8,12]
ranges from 30 cm to 120 cm. The actual processing of bers from
Pineapple 1440 2080 413 34.5 0.81
leaf [22] 1627 82.5 the snake grass natural plants is shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 1 shows the
Kenaf [21] 1400 81 250 4.3 plucking of snake grass plant and the sand are removed by water.
Banana 1350 80250 529759 8.20 13.5 The external green layers of the plants (stamp) are removed. After
[12,15]
which the plants are immersed in water for four consecutive days
Coir [12] 1150 100460 108252 46 1540
Root [22] 1150 100650 157 6.2 3
to remove the primary and secondary walls of the plants by biode-
Palymyrah 1090 701300 180215 7.4604 715 gradable process which will be useful to extract the bers contin-
[22] uously from the plant without any damage. The untreated snake
Date [13] 990 309 11.32 2.73 grass ber is then cut into different lengths for preparing the spec-
Bamboo 910 503 35.91 1.4
imens of composites i.e. the length used for preparing the compos-
[13]
Talipot [22] 890 200700 143294 9.313.3 2.75 ite varies from 10 mm, 30 mm, 60 mm, 90 mm, 120 mm and
Snake grass 887 45250 278.82 9.71 2.87 150 mm respectively.
Elephant 817 70400 185 7.4 2.5
grass
[12] 2.2. Polyester resin
Petiole bark 690 250650 185 15. 2.1
[22] Commercially available isophthallic unsaturated polyester resin
Spatha [22] 690 150400 75.6 3.1 6
is used for the investigation. Accelerator (Methyl Ethyl Ketone
Rachilla 650 200400 61 2.8 8.1
[22]
Peroxide) and the catalyst (Cobalt Naphthalene) are used to cure
Rachis [22] 610 350408 73 2.5 13.5 the resin. Thermoset isiophthallic polyester resin is one of the
Coconut 119.8 18 5.5 economical resins when compare to other resins due to its very
tree leaf low water absorbing capability and excellent bonding tendency
sheath
as well as mechanical properties. The distinctive properties of the
[14]
Red banana 482567 30.6 isophthallic polyester resin are shown in Table 2.
[20]
Nendran 407505 28.3
2.3. Preparation of the composite specimen
banana
[20]
Rasthaly 304388 27.8 After 4 days, the extracted snake grass bers is taken out from
banana the water, then the water content present inside of the ber is re-
[20]
moved by keeping it in natural air for 8 h. Then the bers are kept
Morris 222282 24.2
banana
in the hot air oven for 60 min at 160 C [18]. The dried bers are
[20] then chopped into various lengths as mentioned earlier to prepare
Poovan 144206 21.8 the composites. The simple hand lay-up technique is adapted to
banana prepare the composite specimen with various volume fractions
[20]
(Vf) like 10%, 15%, 20%, 25% and 30% respectively. One percent of
T.P. Sathishkumar et al. / Composites Science and Technology 72 (2012) 11831190 1185
Fig. 1. (a) Snake grass ber plants, (b) plucking of snake grass ber plants, (c) removing the sand by water and (d) ber collection.
Table 2 used through out the testing. Twenty-ve samples were tested in
Properties of the isophthallic polyester resin. this work and the average value of the tensile strength; tensile
modulus and elongation at the failure/break were obtained. The
S. No Properties Unit Range
density of the ber was evaluated using the meltbertoledoxsz05
1 Specic gravity 1.11.46
balances method.
2 Density kg/m3 1125
3 Tensile strength MPa 18
4 Tensile modulus GPa 0.81.1
5 Compressive strength MPa 90250 2.4.2. Tensile testing of the composite
6 Flexural strength MPa 30
Tensile tests were conducted for the composite specimen using
7 Flexural modulus GPa 1.21.5
8 Shrinkage % 0.0040.008 the electronic tensometer setup to obtain the tensile properties.
The dog-bone specimens of the composites were prepared accord-
ing to the ASTM D 638 [10] standards. The specimens were
machined to a standard size of 165 mm 13 mm 4 mm for a
catalyst and one percent of accelerator is used to cure the gauge length of 50 mm. For this testing, the load cell of 5 kN was
isophthallic polyester resin. Steel dies are designed to prepare utilized in the tensometer with the same cross head speed of
the composite specimens. Initially the releasing agent is coated 1 mm/min [9,18]. Five identical test specimens were used for each
over the male and female section of the die for easy removal of testing and numbered in series as T1, T2, T3, T4 and T5. Properties
the specimens after the solidication process. The surfaces are then such as tensile strength, tensile (elastic) modulus, tensile load and
allowed to dry for 15 min, and the bers are spread over the die. elongation at break of the composites were measured from the
Fiber orientation and uniformity in the composites are maintained experimentation. During tensile testing, the specimens were bro-
by the rolling process using steel rollers to achieve the maximum ken in between the gauge length of the specimen and the corre-
isotropic material property and almost all the air bubbles are re- sponding image was shown in Fig. 2.
moved by the continuous rolling process. At the time of curing,
the closed mould is kept on the hydraulic press and a compressive
pressure is applied for 8 h at atmospheric temperature. Finally the
bers are reinforced with the polyester resin within the mould cav-
ity of dimensions 230 mm 200 mm 4 mm to prepare the re-
quired composite plate. After solidication process, the
composite plate is then post-cured for one hour in oven.
2.4. Analysis
85
10mm 30mm
75 60mm 90mm
65
55
45
35
25
10 15 20 25 30
Volume fraction of snake grass fiber (%)
Fig. 5. Tensile stress and tensile strain curve for various ber volume fractions at
30 mm ber length. Fig. 7. Effect of exural strength verses volume fraction of snake grass ber with
different ber lengths.
500 215.11 MPa when the ber length is 60 mm. When the ber length
is increased beyond a limit, then the tensile modulus value gets de-
450
Tensile Modulus (MPa)
creased. This shows that the ber length has inuential effect in
400 setting the tensile modulus value of any natural ber composites.
350
3.3. Effect of exural properties of snake grass natural ber reinforced
300 composites
250 10mm 30mm
60mm 90mm The exural property is one of the important parameter in com-
200 120mm 150mm posites mainly useful to quantify in structural applications. Fig. 7
shows the variations in the exural strength values over% increase
150
10 15 20 25 30 in volume fractions. It is observed that the exural strength values
Volume fraction of fiber (%) are gradually increased up to 20% Vf. Beyond 20% Vf of ber in com-
posite, the exural strength is suddenly increased. Then the
Fig. 6. Effect of tensile modulus verses volume fraction of snake grass ber with increasing trend suddenly changes and the exural strength gets
different ber lengths. drastically reduced when Vf of ber in composite is 30%. During
the composite preparation, if the ber content is more than 30%
Vf, it leads to insufcient lling of matrix into the surrounding
the brittleness to the ductile nature as indicated in the stress bers and it is one of the main reason for the incomplete compos-
strain curve. The elongation at break in the cure resin is lesser than ite. 10% Vf composite have the maximum exural strength of
the composite specimens. The maximum stress is found at 25% Vf 33.45 MPa and it has signicant change of 12.01% when the ber
with increase in strain values. When the volume fraction is content is varied. The maximum exural strength is increased to
increased to 25% then the stressstrain curve is more or similar 38.14 MPa when the %Vf is 15 and the exural strength is signi-
in nature, so the optimum ber volume fraction is accounted as cantly varied by 6.87% depends on the ber content present in
25%. Youngs modulus of the specimens is calculated with the cor- the composite. The increasing trend of the exural strength value
responding machine compliances i.e. by considering the elastic continues as like in the previous cases up to the 25% Vf. 25% Vf com-
portion of the stressstrain curve. From Fig. 5, it is also clear that posite has the maximum exural strength of 75.29 MPa when the
for any given strain level, the stress is increased with the ber ber length is 150 mm. The increasing trend suddenly decreases as
length up to 30 mm and then decreased indicating a critical ber like in previous cases to 49.64 MPa when the %Vf of the ber in
length of 30 mm for short snake grass ber reinforced composites. composite is 30. The maximum exural strength of the composite
The lowering of stress values at higher ber lengths can be attrib- depends upon the length of the ber in the composite, in the pres-
uted to the ber entanglements formed at higher lengths [23]. In ent case it lie in between 120 mm and 150 mm for 25% Vf. It is also
Fig. 6 shows the variation in the tensile modulus values over the noted that the exural strength depends upon the ber content
volume fraction for the various ber lengths of snake grass ber and the ber length. From the extensive experimentation, it is evi-
composites. For 10% Vf, composites have maximum tensile modu- dent that the maximum exural load is carried by the long ber
lus of 336.93 MPa when the ber length is 10 mm and the mini- than the short ber.
mum tensile modulus of 287.02 MPa for 150 mm ber length. Fig. 8 shows the variation in the exural modulus value over the
Similarly, the tensile modulus value gradually increases when various volume fractions of snake grass ber composites. As like in
the volume fraction increases up to 25%. For 15% Vf, composites previous cases, the values of the exural modulus increases while
have maximum tensile modulus of 379.06 MPa and when Vf is increasing the volume fraction. The increasing trend continues up
20% the maximum tensile modulus is increased to 421.81 MPa. to 25% Vf of the composite, which have the maximum exural
The maximum tensile modulus for the entire experimentation is modulus of 15.99GPa when the ber length is 150 mm. For a
481.75 MPa for 25% Vf. It is clearly visible that there is a marginal constant volume fraction when the ber content changes, the vari-
amount of change in tensile modulus value for any constant vol- ations in the exural modulus is clearly visible from the results.
ume fraction when the ber length gets altered. When the volume Then the maximum exural modulus value is suddenly decreased
fraction is 30%, the maximum tensile modulus is decreased to to 6.72 GPa when% Vf of the composite is 30. The observation
1188 T.P. Sathishkumar et al. / Composites Science and Technology 72 (2012) 11831190
a b
Fig. 9. SEM micrograph of tensile fractured specimen (a) 10% Vf and (b) 25% Vf.
T.P. Sathishkumar et al. / Composites Science and Technology 72 (2012) 11831190 1189
Fig. 10. SEM micrograph of the exural fractured specimen (a) 10% Vf and (b) 25% Vf.
[2] Bakare IO, Okiemen FE, Pavithran C, Abdul Khalil HPS, Brahma Kumar M. [13] Murali Mohan Rao K, Mohan Rao K. Extraction and tensile properties of natural
Mechanical and thermal properties of sisal ber-reinforced rubber seed oil- bers: Vakka, date and bamboo. Compos Struct 2007;77:28895.
based polyurethane composites. Mater Des 2010;3:116774. [14] Obi Reddy K, Sivamohan Reddy G, Uma Maheswari C, Varada Rajulu A,
[3] Cao Yong, Wu Yi-qiang. Evaluation of statistical strength of bamboo ber and Madhusudhana Rao K. Structural characterization of coconut tree leaf sheath
mechanical properties of ber reinforced green composite. J Cent Southuniv ber reinforcement. J Forest Res 2010;21(1):538.
Technol 2008;15:5647. [15] Kumar Rakesh, Choudhary Veena, Mishra Saroj, Varma Ik. Banana ber-
[4] Gonzalez-Murillo C, Ansell MP. Mechanical properties of henequen bre/epoxy reinforced biodegradable soy protein composite. Front Chem China
resin composites. Mech Compos Mater 2009;45(4):43542. 2008;3(3):24350.
[5] Silva Flavio de Andrade, Chawla Nikhilesh, Filho Ramildo Dias de Toledo. [16] Burgueno Rigoberto, Quagliata Mario J, Mehta Geeta Misra, Mohanty Amar K,
Tensile behavior of high performance natural (sisal) bers. Compos Sci Technol Misra Majuri, Drzal Lawrence T. Sustainable cellur biocomposites from natural
2008;68:343843. bers and unsaturated polyester resin for housing panel applications. J Polym
[6] Herrera-Franco PJ, Valadez-Gonzalez A. A study of mechanical properties of Environ 2005;31:13949.
short natural-ber reinforced composites. Composites: Part B [17] Monteiro Sergio Neves, Lopes Felipe Perisse D, Nascimento Denise Cristina O.
2005;36:597608. Natural-ber polymermatrix composites: cheaper, tougher, and
[7] Bos HL, Van den oever MJA, Peters OCJJ. Tensile and compressive properties of environmentally friendly. JOM 2009;61:1722.
ax bres for natural bre reinforced composites. J Mater Sci [18] Ochi Shinji. Mechanical properties of kenaf bers and kenef/PLA composites.
2002;37:168392. Mech Mater 2008;40:44652.
[8] Kuruvilla Joseph, Romildo Dias Toledo, Beena James, Sabu Thomas, Laur Hecker [19] Xue Li, Tabil Lope G, Panigrahi Satyanarayan. Chemical treatments of natural
de Carvalho. A review on sisal ber reinforced polymer composites. Rev Brasi ber for use in natural ber-reinforced composites: a review. J Polym Environ
Eng Agricola Ambiental 1999;3(3):36779. 2007;15:2533.
[9] De Rosa Igor Maria, Santulli Carlo, Sarasini Fabrizio. Mechanical and thermal [20] Kiruthika AV, Veluraja K. Experimental studies on the physico-chemical
characterization of epoxy composites reinforced with random and quasi- properties of banana ber from various varieties. Fiber Polym
unidirectional untreated Phormium tenax leaf bers. Mater Des 2009;10(2):1939.
2010;31:2397405. [21] Lee Byoung-Ho, Kim Hyun-Joong, Yu Woong-Ryeol. Fabrication of long and
[10] Jayabal S, Natarajan U. Inuence of ber parameters on tensile, exural, and discontinuous natural ber reinforced polypropylene biocomposites and their
impact properties of nonwoven coirpolyester composites. Adv Manuf Technol mechanical properties. Fibers Polym 2009;10(1):8390.
2010;70:296977. [22] Satyanarayana KG, Sukumaran K, Mukherjee PS, Pavithran C, Pillai SGK.
[11] Mathur VK. Composite materials from local resources. Constr Build Mater Natural berpolymer composite. Cem Compos 1990;12:11736.
2006;20:4707. [23] Sreenivasan VS, Ravindran D, Manikandan V, Narayanasamy R. Mechanical
[12] Murali Mohan Rao K, Ratna Prasad AV, Ranga Babu MNV, Mohan Rao K, Gupta properties of randomly oriented short sansevieria cylindrica bre/polyester
AVSSKS. Tensile properties of elephant grass ber reinforced polyester composites. Mater Des 2011;32:244455.
composite. Mater Sci 2007;42:266672.
All in-text references underlined in blue are linked to publications on ResearchGate, letting you access and read them immediately.