CONTENTS

OVERVIEW OF COMPOSITES
DEFINITIONS CLASSIFICATION OF COMPOSITES

LITERATURE SURVEY
OBJECTIVE OF RESERCH WORK METHODOLOGY PROGRESS OF THE PROJECT

OVERVIEWS OF COMPOSITES
Nowadays, the natural fibers such as Sisal have the

potential to be used as a replacement for glass or other traditional reinforcement materials in composites. Other advantages include low density, high toughness, comparable specific strength properties, reduction in tool wear, ease of separation, decreased energy of fabrication. Composites are materials that comprise strong load carrying material (known as re- inforcement) imbedded in weaker material (known as matrix).

OVERVIEWS OF COMPOSITES
Uses of these fibers satisfy both economic and

ecological interests. In order to produce a composite reinforced with vegetable fibersthat present tension hardening behavior under direct tension,long sisal fibers were employed in the present study.

CLASSIFICATION OF COMPOSITE
COMPOSITES
METAL MATRIX COMPOSITES CERAMIC MATRIX COMPOSITES POLYMER MATRIX COMPOSITES
FIBRE REINFORCED POLYMER PARTICLE REINFORCE POLYMER

FIBRE REINFORCED POLYMER

Common fiber reinforced composites are composed of fibers and a matrix. Fibers are the reinforcement and the main source of strength while matrix glues all the fibers together in shape and transfers stresses between the reinforcing fibres. The fibers carry the loads along their longitudinal directions

LITERATURE SURVEY
Maya Jacob, Sabu Thomas [1] studied the effect of concentration and modification of rubber on fibre surface in sisal/oil palm hybrid fibre reinforced rubber composites. They found that increasing the concentration of fibres resulted in reduction of tensile strength, but resulted in an increase of youngs modulus of composite

G. C. Mohan Kumar (2008)., In this paper, the mechanical properties of the fibers extracted from areca fruit were determined and compared with the other known natural fibre. Further, these areca fibers were chemically treated to improve the mechanical properties using NaOH soaked in a known concentration of NaOH for different periods. Also the effect of this chemical treatment on maize fibre is studied. The composites were prepared with different proportions short areca fibers reinforced in maize stalk fine fibers and phenol formaldehyde. Variations in the static bending strength of these composites were analyzed. Other mechanical properties using adhesion strength, moisture absorption test, and biodegradable tests were carried out and results were reported.

AUTHOR

CHEMICAL TREATMENT

RESIN

TEST

CONCLUSION

P.Ezwane and cloud

NaOH (optical conc. 0.125 N)

Epoxy

Degumming of Sisal Fibre

As concentration of NaOH increases Breaking strength,linear density, stiffness decreases and apparent elongation increased when treated with alkali all above decreases
No influence on fatigue

Arnold M Towo Martin P Ansell

0.06 M NaOH

Epoxy

Tensile test and brittleness Roughness

Yanli,Yiu-Wing H2SO4

Epoxy

Roughness increases

AUTHOR

CHEMICAL TREATMEN T

RESIN

TEST

CONCLUSION

Arnold M Towo 0.06 M Martin P Ansell NaOH

Polyester

Tensile test and brittleness

Improved Tensile strength

Junl Ren Runcany Sun

1% NaOH

Phenolic

Dry zero-span Tensile test

Kappa Number i.e, Tensile strength decreases,Increas e in adhesion

Less Compressiblity and lower

Lin Xin Zhong Shi Yu Fu

Water

Phenolic

Mechanical properties

CHEMICAL CONSTITUENTS OF SISAL FIBRE

Fibre
Untreated NaOH KCl KOH

Cellulose
42.85 31.40 17.61 15.93

Ash
2.34 2.10 1.16 1.02

Lignin
18.65 20.24 5.87 8.92

Hemicellulose
25.28 30.04 9.80 11.26

pH
5.86 8.52 3.43 4.69

Graph of Chemical Constituents Treated and Untreated

OBJECTIVES OF RESEARCH WORK

To conduct following tests on specimen
TENSILE TEST FATIGUE TEST

BENDING TEST
IMPACT TEST

METHODOLOGY
Raw materials used in this work are Sisal Fibre Epoxy resin
The matrix material used in this test is epoxy resin grade 3554A and hardner 3554B supplied by lab chemicals. A liquid epoxy resin with low viscosity for castings, laminations and impregnations into various materials, as fibreglass fabrics, carbon. It possesses excellent stability and very good mechanical properties

 Sisal fibers were treated with NaOH solutions (5%

and10%) at temperature intervals of 6070 _C, for 6 h. After this stage, the fibers were washed several times with distilled water to remove NaOH excess from the surface, until the water no longer indicated any alkalinity reaction. Subsequently, the fibers were dried in oven at 60 _C for 24 h The fibers obtained after alkaline treatment were dipped in NaClO/H2O solution in proportion of 1:1, under heating (60 _C) for 4 h.

 Resol was mixed with epoxy resin in presence of the

catalyst amine 2-(Dimethylamino)ethyl benzoate (Aldrich, 99%) in the proportion 0.93:1:0.03, respectively This mix was used to start the impregnation: liquid phase in sisalfibers. The mix was stirred manually to disperse the short fibers in the matrix. Care was taken to ensure a uniform sample and prevent the formation of bubbles in the biocomposites. These biocomposites were kept in oven for 3 h at 80 _C for cure of the material.

Flowchart of Preparation of Biocomposites Chemical Treatment Employed in sisal Fibres

PROGRESS OF THE PROJECT

FIBRES ARE EXTRACTED

PROPER EPOXY RESIN IS SELECTED