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

Abstract

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.