Effect of fibre length and fibre content on the mechanical properties of coir fiber/polyester composites

The mechanical properties of natural fibre composites depend on many
parameters such as fibre strength, modulus, fibre content, fibre length, and orientation,
in addition to the fibre-matrix interfacial bond strength. In this work, coir fibres with
different fibre length were selected as reinforcements to prepare polymer based matrices.
The length of the fibres was varied for different percentage of weight content of fibre.
The mechanical properties of coir fiber/polyester composites were evaluated as per the
ASTM standard test methods. The presence of fibre and fibre breakage were characterized
using scanning electron microscopy. The effect of fibre length and weight percentage of
fibre on the tensile strength and flexural strength were analyzed using statistical
techniques. General factorial method was accomplished to model and optimize the
mechanical properties of coir/polyester composites using Minitab 15 & Design Expert
7.1.6 statistical package.