IJSTE - International Journal of Science Technology & Engineering | Volume 2 | Issue 11 | May 2016

ISSN (online): 2349-784X

Effect of Fiber Length on the Mechanical

Properties of Coir and Wild Date Palm
Reinforced Epoxy Composites
Sharath G P
Student
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Vidyavardhaka college of Engg. Mysuru, 570002 India

Kishor B S
Student
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Vidyavardhaka college of Engg. Mysuru, 570002 India

Vinod B
Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Vidyavardhaka college of Engg. Mysuru, 570002 India

Naveen Ankegowda
Assistant Professor
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Vidyavardhaka college of Engg. Mysuru, 570002 India

Abstract
Now days natural fibers as reinforcement have received more attention from the research community all over the world in
preparing polymer composites. These natural fibers have lot of advantages over synthetic fibers. In this paper two natural fibers
wild date palm and coir reinforced composites were fabricated using hand lay-up method which was a new effort and was not done
elsewhere. Specimens were cut from the fabricated composite plates according to the ASTM standards. Universal Testing Machine
was used for testing tensile and flexural strength of the composites. The impact strength of the composites was analyzed using
Impact tester. Fiber length of 3mm, 6mm, 9mm, 12mm & 15mm was subjected to analysis. A higher tensile strength of 26.27Mpa
and flexural strength of 67.35MPa was obtained for the fiber of length 12mm compared to the fiber length of 3, 6, 9 and 15mm.
The Higher impact strength of 6.41 KJ/m2 was obtained for fiber of length 15mm. From this experimental study, it was observed
that the fiber length greatly influences the tensile properties of reinforced composites.
Keywords: Natural fibers (coir and wild date palm), Epoxy, Tensile Strength, Flexural Strength, Impact Strength
________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I.

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.
Natural fibers are classified on the basis of the origin of source, into three types
1) Plant Fibers
2) Mineral Fibers
3) Animal Fibers
Plant Fibers:
Generally plant fibers contain cellulose: examples such as cotton, pineapple, Jute, flax, banana, ramie, Sisal. Paper and cloth are
manufactured by cellulose fiber. Skin fibers are the fibers are collected from the skin of the stem of their own plant. They have
superior tensile strength than the other fibers.
Mineral Fibers:
Mineral fibers are obtained in nature and they are mainly tough because of less number of face defects. Asbestos is a commonly
obtained natural mineral fiber. It includes wood, Quartz, and glass, A1 oxide, and silicon carbide.
Animal Fibers:
Animal fiber mainly contain proteins for example angora, silk wool etc. The fiber is obtained from animal hair like wool or hair
(Examples goat hair, horse and alpaca hair). Silk fibers are obtained from cocoons (silk worm).

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Effect of Fiber Length on the Mechanical Properties of Coir and Wild Date Palm Reinforced Epoxy Composites
(IJSTE/ Volume 2 / Issue 11 / 096)

II. MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY

Materials
Coir is a natural fiber extracted from the husk of coconut and used in products such as floor mats, doormats, brushes, mattresses,
etc. Coir is the fibrous material found between the hard, internal shell and the outer coat of a coconut. Other uses of brown coir in
upholstery, padding, sacking and horticulture. White coir, harvested from unripe coconuts, is used for making finer brushes, strings,
rope and fishing nets. Table 1 shows physical and mechanical properties of coir fiber.
Table 1:
Properties of coir
Properties
Values
Density (g/cm3)
1.40
Tensile strength (MPa)
175
Youngs modulus (MPa)
3790
Breaking Elongation (%)
30
Moisture at 65%RH (%)
10.50

The wild date palm is a mono cotyledon of the family of the palmate. It is a feather palm, characterized by compound leaves
with a series of leaflets on each side of a common petiole, originating from one growing point at the top of the trunk. The date
palm may reach an age of over 100 years and reach up to 24m in height. Table 2 shows physical and mechanical properties of wild
date palm fiber.
Table 2:
Properties of Wild Date Palm
Property
Values
Density (g/cm3)
1-1.20
Tensile strength (MPa)
97-196
Youngs modulus (MPa)
2500-5400
Breaking Elongation (%)
2-4.5

Lapox L12 is a liquid, unmodified epoxy resin of medium viscosity which can be used with various hardeners for making glass
fiber reinforced composite. The choice of hardener depends on the processing method to be used and on the properties required of
the cured composite. Table 3 shows the properties of Lapox L12 resin.
Table 3:
Properties of Lapox L12
Property
Values
Tensile strength (MPa)
19
Flexural strength (MPa)
130-150
Impact strength (MPa)
17-20
Youngs modulus (MPa)
4400-4600
Compressive strength (MPa)
110-120

Methodology
Extraction of fibers:
The coir and wild date palm fiber is obtained from coir and wild date palm plant, which has been collected from local sources. The
extracted coir and wild date palm fiber were subsequently sun dried for 8 hours to remove free water present in the fiber.
Chemical treatment:
Alkali treatment or mercerization using sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is the most commonly used treatment for bleaching and cleaning
the surface of natural fibers to produce high-quality fibers. Modifying natural fibers with alkali has greatly improved the mechanical
properties of the resultant composites. The following steps were carried out during chemical treatment.
5% NaOH solution was prepared using sodium hydroxide pellets and distilled water.
Coir and wild date palm fibers were then dipped in the solution for 1hour.
After 1 hour fibers were washed with 1% HCL solution to neutralize the fibers.
Then it is washed with distilled water.
It was then kept in hot air oven for 3 hours at 65-700C.
Manufacturing of composite:
For the sample preparation the first and foremost step is the preparation of the mould which ensures the dimension of 2001504
mm the composite to be prepared. We have to prepare moulds for the preparation of 50% coir and 50% wild date palm of the
composite having 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15mm fiber length. Clean smooth surfaced granite is taken and washed thoroughly. The laminates
are prepared using hand layup method. This method of manufacturing is a relatively simple method compared to other methods
like vacuum bag molding resin transfer molding, autoclave molding.

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Effect of Fiber Length on the Mechanical Properties of Coir and Wild Date Palm Reinforced Epoxy Composites
(IJSTE/ Volume 2 / Issue 11 / 096)

Fig. 1: 3mm fiber laminate

Fig. 4: 12mm fiber laminate

Fig. 2: 6mm fiber laminate

Fig. 3: 9mm fiber laminate

Fig. 5: 15mm fiber laminate

Fig. 6: Unreinforced laminate

III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Tensile Test:
The tensile test was conducted following the standard of ASTM D638 (150*20*4mm) type IV using JJ Lloyd universal testing
machine with load cell of 1KN and using crosshead speed of 5 mm/min. The test was performed until the tensile failure occurred.
Figure 8 shows the Variation of Tensile strength for coir and wild date palm reinforced laminated composites with fiber length
of 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15mm. From table 4 it can be observed that a slight increase of 3.94% for 3mm fiber length compared to
unreinforced polymer composites. But the value increased significantly by 24.87% for 12mm fiber length and it was the highest
than 3, 6, 9 and 15mm fiber length. The highest value tensile strength is 27.22MPa is obtained for laminated composite of fiber
length 12mm.
Table 4:
Tensile test results
Fiber length
(mm)
3
6
9
12
15
Plain(unreinforced)

Maximum load(KN)

Youngs modulus(MPa)

Stress at maximum load(MPa)

1.27
1.38
1.49
1.63
1.51
1.23

3807.19
4719.11
6325.12
5996.42
5630.2
3523.25

21.29
23.12
24.98
27.22
25.86
20.45

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Effect of Fiber Length on the Mechanical Properties of Coir and Wild Date Palm Reinforced Epoxy Composites
(IJSTE/ Volume 2 / Issue 11 / 096)

Fig. 7: Specimen undergoing tensile test

Fig. 8: Variation of Tensile strength with fiber length

Flexural Test:
Here ASTM standard D790 (80*10*4mm) is used. Three-point loading system applied on a supported beam was utilized. The
flexural test was conducted using JJ Lloyd universal testing machine with load cell of 1KN and using crosshead speed of 5mm/min.
Test was performed until flexural failure occurred.
Figure 10 shows the Variation of bending strength for the coir and wild date palm reinforced laminated composites with fiber
length of 3, 6, 9, 12 and 15mm. From table 5 it can be seen that the highest value of maximum bending stress is 81.75 MPa for
12mm which is 66.1% greater than the matrix material. Finally, there was a decrease in its value for 15mm fiber length but it was
42.55% greater than that of unreinforced polymer composite.
Fiber length
(mm)
3
6
9
12
15
Plain(unreinforced)

Fig. 9: Specimen undergoing flexural test

Table 5:
Flexural test results
Maximum load
Maximum bending stress(MPa)
(KN)
0.141
35.28
0.157
39.36
0.274
47.67
0.470
81.75
0.192
48.24
0.108
27.71

Fig. 10: Variation of bending strength with fiber length

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Effect of Fiber Length on the Mechanical Properties of Coir and Wild Date Palm Reinforced Epoxy Composites
(IJSTE/ Volume 2 / Issue 11 / 096)

Impact test:
The impact properties of the material are directly related to the overall toughness which is defined as the ability to absorb applied
energy. Impact strength is a measure of toughness. Charpy impact test was carried out on a test specimen as per ASTM standard
D256 (80*10*4mm).
The table 6 shows that the highest value of Charpy impact strength is 6.41KJ/m2 for 15mm fiber length which is 67.39% greater
than the matrix material Lapox L12. Initially for fiber length of 3mm impact strength increased by 22.3%.as the length fiber length
increased from 3mm to 6mm a tremendous increase from 2.09KJ/m2 to 3.05KJ/m2 was observed ( a 31.47% increases). Then its
value increased by 40.62% for 9mm and 49.14% for 12mm fiber. Figure 12 shows the Variation of Impact strength with fiber
length
Table 6:
Impact test results
Fiber length(mm)
Charpy impact strength(KJ/m2)
3
2.63
6
3.05
9
3.52
12
4.11
15
6.41
Plain(unreinforced)
2.09

Fig. 11: Specimen undergoing impact test

Fig. 12: Variation of Impact strength with fiber length

IV. CONCLUSION
The results of this present study showed that a useful composite with good properties could be successfully developed using treated
coir and wild date palm as reinforcing agent for the Lapox L12 matrix. It can be seen that composites reinforced with fiber length
of 12mm show better tensile strength of 27.22MPa and flexural strength of 81.75MPa than 3mm, 6mm, 9mm and 15mm length.
But better impact strength of 6.41 KJ/m2 was obtained for fiber length of 15mm than 3mm, 6mm, 9mm and 12mm reinforced
composites. Hence fiber length greatly influences the mechanical properties of the coir and wild date palm reinforced Lapox L12
composite.
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