TENSILE PROPERTIES OF PINEAPPLE

LEAF FIBRE REINFORCED

UNSATURATED POLYESTER

Corrosion and Fracture Focus Group

Januar Parlaungan Siregar,

Tezara Cionita,

Dandi Bachtiar, and

Mohd Ruzaimi Mat Rejab

Background of study

Problem statement

Objectives

Scope of study

Literature review

Methodology

References

CONTENT

BACKGROUND OF STUDY

• The development of natural fibre composites has beenin the limelight for this recent years since there aremany studies conducted on natural fibres to replacesynthetic fibres as reinforcement. Natural fibres aremore economical when used as reinforcement inpolymer composites compared with synthetic fibres.

• Recently, the research community has shown growinginterest in using PALF to reinforce thermoplastic andthermoset polymer composites due to their excellentmechanical properties compared to those of othernatural fibres.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Fibre length, fibre content and interfacial

adhesion between fibre and polymer matrix are

the three factors that determine the strength of

natural fibre reinforced polymer composites.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The main objectives of this study are :

• To investigate the tensile properties of

pineapple leaf fiber reinforced unsaturated

polyester composite.

• To compare the effect of fibre length and

fibre content of pineapple fiber reinforced

unsaturated polyester composite.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

�Fabricate the specimen with different variable

of fibre length and fibre content of PALF/UP

composite using hand lay-up process

�Prepare tensile tests specimen according to

ASTM D3039.

�Analysis and collect data for the tensile

properties of PALF/UP composite.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Natural fiber

Vegetables or plant fibers Mineral FibersAnimal fibers

SeedFruit BastLeafWood Stalk Cane,grass &

reed fibres

Coir

Cotton

Kapok

Pineapple

Abaca

Sisal

Flax

Hemp

Jute

Ramie

Kenaf

Wheat

Maize

Barley

Bamboo

Bagasse

Sabei

Source : Akil (2011)

Classification of natural fibers

EXAMPLE OF THE PLANT FIBER

Jute plant Sisal plant

Flax plant Pineapple leaf

Mengkuang plant

Source : wikimedia

Source : Sheltami, 2012)

Cont.. LITERATURE REVIEW

• Pineapple leaf fibre (PALF) is one of the fibre have

been extract from the pineapple plant (Ananas

comosus) from the Bromeliaceae family (Arib et al.,

2006).

• Pineapple leaf fibres have greater content of

cellulose compared to other fibre and play an

important role in fruit weight and the point that the

fruit are not perishable (Reddy et al., 2005)

• Traditional people use PALF leaves for making rope,

mats and weaving hats.

(Source: Saira et al., 2012)

Properties of selected natural and manmade fibers

(Source: Nanthaya et al., 2012)

Source: (Ku et al., 2011)

METHODOLOGY

FLOW CHART

MOULD OF THE SPECIMEN

360mm

260 m

m

200 m

m

300 mm

� Glass mould

� Thickness 5 mm

3D picture for mould

specimen

2D picture for mould

specimen

STANDARD TENSILE TEST

SPECIMEN

200 mm

30

mm

5 mm

Specimen shapes and dimensions of ASTM D3039

� Speed of the tensile test is 1mm/min

� 7 specimen each test

STANDARD TENSILE TEST

SPECIMEN

Universal tensile testing machine INSTRON

model 3369.

UP MPEKr PALF

Glass mould

Pure UP5% PALF

10% PALF fiber 15% PALF fiber

T-JAW machineSpecimen for

tensile test Universal testing machine

Instron 3369

Mixing process

Product

Cutting processTensile test

PREPARATION FOR TENSILE TEST

Results

Tensile properties of PALF/UP composites with different fibre length

Tensile properties of PALF/UP composites with different fibre length

Discussions

The addition of 5% fibre with < 0.5 mm length of fibre in UP

composite, the tensile strength and tensile modulus is

about 29.80 MPa and 981 MPa respectively.

The addition of 0.5-1 mm and 1-2 mm size of fibre

significantly increase of the tensile strength and tensile

modulus of composite from 35.40 MPa to 42.30 MPa and

1020 MPa to 1344 MPa respectively

The result of the investigation shows that the increase size

of fibre from < 0.5 mm to 1-2 mm has increase the tensile

strength of PALF/UP composites.

Discussions

The increase of fibre content from 0 to 15 %vol. has decreased the tensile

strength and tensile modulus of PALF/UP composites.

The addition of 5% PALF in UP composites the tensile strength has decreased

of 25 % (42.30 MPa). The tensile modulus increase by 8%, from 1237 MPa to

1344 MPa, when the fibre content increased from 0% to 5%.

The tensile strength and tensile modulus has decreased with the increase of

the fibre volume fraction of 5 to 15%. The highest fibre content (15%) in UP

composites has lowest tensile strength (26.10 MPa) and tensile modulus (869

MPa).

Conclusions

The decrement of tensile strength on natural fibre composite is due to the

weak bonding between the fibre and matrix. In addition, fibre

agglomerations also lead to uneven dispersion in matrix, thus weakening

the tensile strength of the material

The results of this study indicate that the fibre length has profound impact on

the properties of composites. Beside holding the fibres together, the matrix

has the important function of transferring applied load to the fibres. The

efficiency of a fiber reinforced composite depends on the fiber-matrix

interface and the ability to transfer stress from the matrix to the fiber

REFERENCES

1) Arib, R.M.N., Sapuan, S.M., Ahmad, M.M.H.M., Parida, M.T., and KhairulZaman, H.M.D. 2004. Mechanical properties of pineapple leaf fibrereinforced polypropylene composites. Materials and Design, 27:391–396

2) Reddy, N., Yang, Y. 2005. Biofibers from agricultural by products forindustry applications.Trends Biotechnol, 23: 22–27 Ratna Prasad.A.V. andMohana Rao.K., Mechanical properties of natural fibre reinforcedpolyester composites: Jowar,sisal and bamboo, Materials and Design,32,8-9,4658–4663.

3) Nanthaya, K., and Taweechai A. 2012. Utilisation of pineapple leaf wastefor plastic reinforcement. A novel extraction method for short pineappleleaf fiber. Industrial Crops and Products, 40 :55– 61.

4) Ku, H., Wang, H., Pattarachaiyakoop, N., and Trada, M. 2011. A review onthe tensile properties of natural fiber reinforced polymer composites.Composites, 42: 856–873.

Thank you

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