Effect of Fibre Loading and Concentration of NaOH used for Surface Modification of Fibre on Mechanical properties of EpoxySisal Fibre Composites (KEY IJP************659)

• Saurabh Verma,Satish Sejhkar

Abstract

The present work comprises of fabrication and analysis of epoxy composites reinforced with short sisal fibre. The effect of loading of sisal fibre on the various mechanical properties are investigated. Apart from that the present work also comprises studying the effect of the concentration of NaOH used for the surface modification of sisal fibre on the various mechanical properties. The properties under investigation are tensile strength, flexural strength and compressive strength. The composites are fabricated using the hand lay-up method and the fibre loading varies from 2.5 wt. % to 10 wt. %. The concentration of NaOH selected for modifying the surface of sisal fibre is 2 moles, 4 moles and 6 moles. The major advantage of modifying the surface of natural fibre is that it improves the adhesion between fibre and matrix along with improving the mechanical properties of the material. From the experimentation, it is observed that the inclusion of sisal fibre improves the various mechanical properties of the composites under investigation. From the analysis it is seen that composite with surface modified sisal fiber yield better results and further fiber treated with 2 mole NaOH concentration is superior among their counterpart.