Studies on Mechanical Behavior of Surface Modified Sisal Fibre – Epoxy Composites

Abstract

Studies were carried out on sisal-epoxy composites prepared with different fibre weight fractions (precisely determined by a novel thermogravimetric analyser technique) containing optimally treated (18% NaOH) sisal fibres, using an improvised fabrication approach. An enhancement of 110% in the optimally treated fibre tensile property resulted in improvement of composite mechanical properties (compression, tensile, interlaminar shear stress and energy absorption) ranging between 18% and 158%. A novel fibre treatment effectiveness parameter was introduced, to quantify the translation efficiency of the enhanced fibre tensile property into the composite tensile property. Scanning electron microscopic analysis of fractured composite specimens are also presented and discussed.