ON THE STUDY OF I N D I G E N O U S N A T U R A L - F I B R E

COMPOSITES

T. PARAMAStVAMand A. P. J. ABDULKALAM

Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thumba (India)

(Received: 6 August, 1973)

SUMMA R Y

The fibre which serves as a reinforcement in reinforced plastics may be synthetic or

natural. So far, only artificial fibres such as glass, carbon, boron, etc., have been used
in fibre-reinforced plastics. Although glass and other synthetic fibre-reinforced plastics
possess high specific strength, their fields of application are very limited because of
their inherent higher cost of production. In "this connection, an investigation has been
carried out to make use of the natural fibres available in plenty in India. Some of these
natural fibres are not only strong and lightweight but also relatively very cheap.

INTRODUCTION

Currently the Fibre Reinforced Plastics Division of the Vikram Sarabhai Space
Centre, Thumba, India has undertaken a study on natural fibres such as sisal,
coconut, jute, etc., for use as reinforcements in composites. The sisal, or kathalai,
fibres are likely to be stronger than any other natural fibre mentioned above. The
composites made of such natural fibres will have extensive applications in fields
such as consumer goods, low cost housing and civil structures and for many other
common applications where the prohibitive cost of reinforcements at present
restricts the use of conventional lightweight reinforced plastics. In this paper we
briefly outline the results of preliminary tests on sisal fibres and their composites.
Some of the products successfully tried out are shown in Figs. 1 to 5.

85
Fibre Science and Technology (7) (1974)--0 Applied Science Publishers Ltd, England, 1974
Printed in Great Britain
86 T. PARAMASIVAM, A. P. J. ABDUL KALAM

Fig. 1. Dog-bone specimen.

Fig. 2. Plate specimen with horizontal lay-up.

Fig. 3. Plate specimen with vertical lay-up.

 INDIGENOUS NATURAL-FIBRE COMPOSITES 87

Fig. 4. Cylinder with longitudinal and hoop reinforcement.

Fig. 5. Cylinder with helical and hoop reinforcement.

TENSION TESTS ON SISAL AND 'E' GLASS FIBRES

The ultimate load of the fibre has been expressed in gins/den. ~ One denier, or den,
is the linear density of the fibre (the weight of 9000 m length of the fibre). The
tests described were conducted in an lnstron testing machine (capacity 10 T) and
the ultimate load of the sisal fibre was observed to be 0.405 gms/den as compared
with that of ' E ' glass end which is only 0.078 gms/den. The ultimate load of the
sisal fibre is about six times higher than that of 'E" glass ends. The reason for this
is quite obvious since the density of the sisal fibre is much less than that of fibreglass.
The values given above are averages from several tests.
88 T. P A R A M A S I V A M , A. P. J. A B D U L K A L A M

TENSION TESTS O N COMPOSITE SPECIMENS

Typical tension tests on dog-bone specimens made of sisal fibres with epoxy resin
gave encouraging results, suggesting a greater scope for developing these natural
fibres for structural and other commercial purposes. The tensile strength of sisal-
epoxy composite varies from 2500 kg/cm 2 to 3000 kg/cm2--nearly half the strength
of fibreglass epoxy composite. Since the density of the sisal-epoxy composite is
half that of glass-epoxy composite, the specific strength of sisal composite is
nearly the same as that of glass composite. The uni-directional modulus of sisal-
epoxy composite is about 85,000 kg/cm 2. Further tests are underway to accurately
determine the properties of the sisal composites.

SISAL COMPOSITEPRODUCTS

The products shown in Figs. l to 5 are only experimental specimens fabricated to

study the feasibility of winding and laminating processes with these fibres and to
determine the basic mechanical and other engineering properties ofthese composites.

CONCLUSION

The strength of the natural fibre composites obtained from the experiments, the
ease with which these can be used in winding, laminating and other possible
fabrication processes and, above all, lower cost of production of the NAF composite
(Natural Fibre Composites) products in comparison with fibreglass products
clearly indicate the feasibility of developing these composites for many other
applications.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors are grateful to the Divisional Head and personnel of MQC Division
for their kind assistance in carrying out the experiments described in this paper.
The co-operation and invaluable encouragement rendered by the personnel of FRP
Division in the preparation of experimental specimens are also fully acknowledged.

REFERENCES

1. H. F. MARK, S. M. ATLASand E, CERNIA, (eds). Man-made fibres, Science & Technology,

Vol. 3. Interscience Publishers (A division of John Wiley and Sons), p. 571.