EFFECT OF FIBER VOLUME FRACTION ON THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF COCONUT SHEATH/USP COMPOSITE
Keywords:
Coconut Sheath, Polyester Composite, Fiber Volume Fraction , Mechanical TestAbstract
Natural fibers and their composites are the emerging trends in material science which are the replacements for the synthetic reinforcements. Because of their high specific strength and less processing requirements most of the plant based fibers are become center of research. This work used one of the novel reinforcements viz. “coconut sheath”. This reinforcement is directly drawn from the bottom portions of the coconut tree followed by minimum pre-processing before being used. Fiber volume fraction (FVF) is one of the most important factor when composite is in concern. The optimal level of reinforcement only can exhibit good bearing property. In this work, there four different fiber volumes were practiced in order to find the optimal fiber volume fraction. Density and hardness were taken as a measure for rheological properties, where flexural, ILSS and impact tests for mechanical properties. Result shows that, the trend in all the properties increased as a function of increase in fiber volume fraction except for impact strength.
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