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Materials Today: Proceedings 18 (2019) 934–940 www.materialstoday.com/proceedings

ICN3I-2017

Development and characterization of areca fiber reinforced polymer


composite
Kishore Dinakarana, Harish Ramesha, Allan Dojo Josepha, Dr. Ramu Murugana,
Dr. Sathishkumar Jothib
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Amrita School of Engineering, Coimbatore, Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, India
b
College of Engineering, Swansea University, Swansea, UK

Abstract

Use of natural fiber as reinforcement is a burgeoning field of research because of the ease of procuring raw materials, bio-
degradable and environment friendly nature along with mechanical properties of the resulting composites that are comparable to
synthetic fiber-reinforced composites. Areca owing to these very reasons along with low cost, light-weight further advocated by
its tensile strength has pervaded the field of composite manufacturing. Different natural fibers have been used by many
researchers for the development of bio-composites, but areca leaf fibers as a feasible fiber has seldom been researched or spoken
about. This research article sheds light on the development and study of mechanical behavior of a natural fiber reinforced epoxy
composite of areca fiber with different configuration of areca fiber orientation.
© 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and/or Peer-review under responsibility of International Conference on Nanotechnology: Ideas, Innovations & Initiatives-2017 (ICN:3i-
2017).

Keywords: Composites, Natural fibres; Fibre orientation; Mechanical properties; Experimental analysis.

1. Introduction

Since the past decade there has been a steady increase in research for natural fiber reinforced composites because of
its potential to replace synthetic fiber reinforced plastics at lower cost with improved sustainability in various
engineering applications and industries.

* Corresponding author. Tel.:9789012411.


E-mail address: kishoredina11@gmail.com

2214-7853 © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


Selection and/or Peer-review under responsibility of International Conference on Nanotechnology: Ideas, Innovations & Initiatives-2017 (ICN:3i-
2017).
K. Dinakaran et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 18 (2019) 934–940 935

The age of composites began when there was a need for high strength to weight ratio in components that
demanded high performance and efficiency, which invited the developments of various polymer matrix composites
with a variety of fiber reinforcements such as carbon fiber, glass fibers, aramid, natural fibers, hybrid, etc.
Considering the factor of environmental friendly materials and the need to produce various sustainable engineering
and industry oriented components, natural fiber composites play an important role.
Natural fibres [1] play an inevitable role as a reinforcement agent because of their good mechanical properties and
bio-degradable nature [2] and it is found abundantly all over the world. Many natural fibres like jute, kenaf, sisal,
hemp, bamboo, areca, pineapple [3], banana [4] and coir hold the position of key materials in many areas of research
because of their availability and cost effectiveness to develop an inexpensive reinforcing material. Use of different
natural fibres as a reinforcement agent in composite materials, has given us an array of properties that can be used
advantageously for various applications. It has been found that natural fibre reinforced composites possess
resistance to electricity, good thermal insulating [5] property and also provide good corrosion resistance. The past
research works on volume fraction shows that the tensile strength of natural-polymer composites increases with
increase in volume fraction of the fibre [6]. It has been shown in the study of the tensile characteristic of the
untreated areca sheath composite that the longer the fibre length more is the strength of the composite [6].
Considering the fact that chemical treatment of the fibres [15] will bring out the changes in its mechanical properties
it is found that by alkali treatment of the areca nut fibre shows enhanced mechanical strength than the untreated
fibres [7]. Curing time of the composite also plays a vital role in determining the full potential strength of the
composite. From the work done by Srinivasa Chikkol Venkateshappa [7] it is evident that the strength of the
composite increases as the curing time of the composite increases. Other mechanical properties such as impact
strength, hardness and flexural strength of the areca fibre composite were studied in which the influence of volume
fraction [14], post curing time and alkali treatment for effective bonding were taken into account. From the research
work by S.C.Venkateshappa it is found that the flexural strength increases with increase in fibre loading percentage
and comparing to the untreated fibre, there has been a significant increase in flexural strength for the alkali treated
fibres [8, 9]. The results drawn from the research work done by C.V. Srinivasa is it found that the impact strength
increased with the post curing time [10] and it is also shown as the curing time increased the alkali treated
composites became brittle [10].This research is focused on the tensile property of the non-chemically treated areca
fibre sheaths which is water soaked, hot pressed and compressed into the thickness of 2.5mm to 3mm, which is
commonly available in India as areca fibre plates and using this as reinforcing agent in epoxy polymer composite to
study its tensile properties and effects of the different combinations of the orientation angles of the fibre which
influences the tensile property of the composite.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Sheath fiber extraction

In this study, the composite’s reinforcement agent used is the areca sheath fiber. We will be using a mechanically
altered version of the areca sheath fiber that is made into a flat plate. As shown in Fig. 1. Areca leaf sheath fiber
plate is made from the Areca palm tree whose scientific binomial name is Areca catechu. The sheath is attached to
the areca nut leaf which covers the areca nut fruits. The raw material that is the areca sheaths are collected and it is
first surface cleaned to remove impurities and other microbial actions. Leaf sheaths acquired are highly
heterogeneous having deviations in its structure, size, shape and depth. It is thicker ends and thinner at the edges.
The thickness of the samples from the center to the edges ranges from 2.5mm to 9.5 mm; an average of 5.0 mm is
obtained from most of the samples. A relatively homogenous piece of impartially uniform thickness and size of
about 50-65 x 20-25 cm can be obtained from the raw sheath if either the 10cms to 11cms from the edges and 5cm
from the center distance where 10cm to 15cm along the grain is trimmed. In order to obtain a flat sheath of uniform
thickness without any buckling of folds, the sheath is compressed under pressure and heat (hot-pressed). For this, the
sheaths are first soaked in water wherein the sheaths absorbs the moisture to an extent of 75% and then it is
compressed for 30 minutes in a high thermal compression plate at a pressure of 4 kg/cm2 at 110ºC temperature.
This process gives flat sheaths of 1.0-1.5 mm thickness with about 12 per cent moisture.
936 K. Dinakaran et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 18 (2019) 934–940

a) b)

Fig. 1. (a) Dry Areca sheath fiber obtained from the areca plant; (b) hot pressed areca sheath fiber plate.

2.2. Preparation of composites

The two important factors that affect the strength of the composite are the volume fraction of the fibers in the
composite and the configuration in which the fibers are oriented in a composite to the applied load. In this study the
volume fraction is kept constant and the configuration of the fibers within the composite is taken into account. In
this study the fiber is said to be 90° oriented when the fiber axis is parallel to the y-axis and the fiber is said to be 0°
when the fiber axis is parallel to the x-axis as shown in Fig.2. The external load is applied along the y-axis such that
the longitudinal young’s modulus of the fiber sheath is taken along y-axis direction of the 90° oriented fiber sheath.
Transverse young’s modulus of the fiber sheath is taken along the direction of the 0° oriented fiber sheath. The
angles like 30°, 45°, and 60° are cut with respect to the reference of 0° orientation of fibers which is aligned along to
the x-axis. Epoxy [13] resin LY 556 CS and its corresponding hardener was used in the ratio 1:10 by weight with a
post curing time of 48 hours. The composites were prepared by the hand layup technique as shown in Fig.3., in
which the mould was prepared by using a coating of polyvinyl alcohol which facilitates easy removal of the
specimens from the mould.

a) b)

Fig. 2. (a) 90° oriented fiber; (b) 0° oriented fiber.

2.3. Characterization

Testing of properties was conducted on specimens that adhered to the appropriate ASTM standards. The raw
untreated sheath fibre specimen was first tested to find its mechanical properties like longitudinal and transverse
Young’s modulus, which were calculated according to composite tensile testing standard The composites were made
K. Dinakaran et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 18 (2019) 934–940 937

according to the standard ASTM D638 dog-bone–shaped specimen with a total length of 190 mm, a gauge length of
100 mm, width of 22 mm at gauge length section, 35 mm width at gripping section, and a uniform thickness of 10
mm is used for the tension test. The specimen is loaded in Tinius Olsen H25KT universal testing machine as shown
in Fig.4., with computer interface for acquiring data at constant crosshead speed of 1 mm/min until the failure of the
specimen occurs. The tests were conducted in a room temperature of 27°C with normal atmospheric condition.

Fig. 3.Composite prepared using hand-layup technique Fig. 4. Tensile test of the composite

3. Results and discussions

3.1. Fiber properties

As the areca sheath fibres are initially obtained in an anhydrous state it is mainly composed of 66.08% of α-
cellulose, 7.40% of hemicellulose and 19.59% of lignin [11] which mainly contributes to the bond strength. In
addition, it also comprises of minor constituents such as pectic matters and fatty and waxy matters that contributes
in a relatively low matter to the bond strength, it is resistive to electric discharges and can be degraded with the
action of fungus and bacteria, thus making the areca sheath fibre a bio-degradable material. The table 1 shows the
properties of the fibre sheath that was obtained due to pure tensile failure. Sheath as a whole comprises of infinite
number of fibres, it is evident from the results that the strength taken along the direction of the fibre will be more
than the strength taken along the normal direction of the fibre. Taking the density of the sheath, the specific modulus
Young’s modulus and the specific strength of the sheath fibre are calculated accordingly.

Table 1. Areca sheath fibre mechanical properties

Longitudinal Transverse Density Specific Tensile Strength Specific


Young’s Modulus (kg/mm3) Modulus Strength
Young’s Modulus
(GPa) (Pa/kg/mm3) (Pa/kg/mm2)
(GPa) (MPa)

2.680±0.5 0.119±0.0044 0.3625×10-6 7.393×109 35.68 98.427×106

Fig. 5. Shows the competency of the specific strength from of the selected natural fibre along with the plastics that
are commonly used in various applications in which the specific strength of the areca sheath fibre is 38.02% higher
than that of the nylon material. Fig. 6. shows the competency of specific modulus of areca sheath fiber with the
other natural fibers and synthetic fibers [12].
938 K. Dinakaran et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 18 (2019) 934–940

0.12

0.1

Specific Strength
GPa/kg/mm3
0.08

0.06

0.04

0.02

0
Nylon Areca Sheath Polypropelene Phenolic

Fig.5. Comparison of specific strength with plastics

45
39
40
35
Specific Modulus

29 29
GPa/kg/mm3

30
25
18
20
15
9.1 7.393
10 5.3 6.7
3.3 3.7 4
5 1.8
0
Wool Coir Cotton Silk Medium Sisal Jute Areca Flax E-glass Ramie Hemp
density sheath
fibre
board

Fig.6. Comparison of specific modulus with other natural and synthetic fibres

3.2. Areca fiber reinforced epoxy polymer composite

In making of areca sheath reinforced epoxy composite, the volume fraction of the fiber, chemical treatment of the
fiber and the curing time for the composite plays an important role. In this paper the volume fraction of fiber to
composite is 75% and it is kept constant through the whole process, no chemical treatment is done to the areca
sheaths and the curing time for the preparation of each individual specimen is kept constant. The composite
specimen was made according to the tensile standard ASTM D638 in which five composites were prepared. Within
every composite the angular orientation of the sheath fiber is changed with respect to the x-coordinate, within the
fiber layers of the composite. The Table 2 shows the Young’s modulus results for various combinations of different
orientation of fiber layers within a composite.
The data from the obtained results shows that the composite which had the sheath fiber orientation 90°-90°-90°
has the highest young’s modulus value. Comparing the fiber orientations 90°-90°-90° and 90°-0°-90°, young’s
modulus value of 90°-0°-90° composite decreased because of the zero degree orientation of the fiber which was less
effective in taking up the force applied on the composite. Comparing the fiber orientation 45°-90°-45° and 45°-0°-
45°, even though the inter-angular difference between the adjacent layer is 45°, the 90° orientation of the fiber
sheath increased the young’s modulus of the overall composite. As the fiber angle approaches zero the young’s
modulus decreased because comparing to the individual fiber properties for the 0° oriented fiber, as the load is
applied along the perpendicular direction to the fiber orientation, transverse young’s modulus comes into the play
with yields a lesser young’s modulus value than the longitudinal one. Comparing the models 45°-0°-45° and 30°-
60°-30° the young’s modulus value is the least from the model 30°-60°-30°, as the majority fiber sheath angle is two
K. Dinakaran et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 18 (2019) 934–940 939

layers of 30° in this case and it holds a least angular difference the orientation and the x-axis its local strength when
resolved to the global strength, it’s strength is much lesser when compared the 90° oriented fiber’s global stress.
So it is observed from this that the angle of orientation of the reinforcing fiber plays an important role in
determining the overall Young’s modulus of the composite in which the global strength of the composite increased
as the angular orientation with reference to the x-axis increased. As the load increased, the first failure occurred in
the fiber sheath that had less fiber angle orientation with respect to the x-axis, it was followed by the corresponding
fiber sheath that had minimum angle of orientation.

Table 2. Young’s modulus and maximum elongation for different composite configuration

Composite configuration Young’s modulus Elongation(mm) Angle difference


between the layers.
(GPa)
90°-0°-90° 1.062 4.38 90
45°-90°-45° 1.142 6.1725 45
45°-0°-45° 0.641 3.65 45
30°-60°-30° 0.431 2.97 30
90°-90°-90° 1.798 11.6 0

4. Conclusions

 The Young’s modulus and the tensile strength of hot pressed, non-chemical treated areca sheath fiber was
evaluated experimentally and its specific modulus was found to be 55.5% more than that of coir and
39.79% greater than that of medium density fiber board which is a engineered wood product commonly
used for domestic appliances.

 Composites with different orientation in the sheath fiber angle were prepared and tensile test was
performed, in which it was observed that the composite that had the sheath fiber orientation as 90°-90°-90°
had the highest strength and it’s Young’s modulus was estimated to be 1.798GPa.

 The maximum elongation for the composite before the first failure of the specimen occurred was evaluated.
Composite with sheath fiber orientation of 90°-90°-90° had the highest elongation of about 11.6% of its
original length.

 As the sheath fiber angle of orientation in a composite decreased, there was a significant reduction in the
young’s modulus value, the extension of the total composite also reduced. Composite that had least fiber
orientation witnesses less longitudinal Young’s modulus and it failed easily under loading and this effect
was also felt in a significant manner in the composite.

 The composite that had 90°-90°-90° orientation of fiber gave the advantage to withstand higher strength
when the load was applied only along the longitudinal direction of the sample. If the loading is of
bidirectional in nature the composite with fiber orientation 45°-90°-45° can be used as the optimum one
because the 45° oriented fiber enhances the composite strength when load is applied in the inclined
direction with reference to the longitudinal axis.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the management of Amrita school of engineering, Coimbatore for their encouragement
and constant support provided during this course of this project. We would also like to thank Dr.Satheeshkumar V,
940 K. Dinakaran et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 18 (2019) 934–940

Department of mechanical engineering, Amrita school of Engineering, Coimbatore for the valuable suggestions and
encouragement which he provided during the course of this research.

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