Mechanical Properties of Continuous Natural Fibres (Jute, Hemp, Flax) Reinforced Polypropylene Composites Modified with
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ISSN 1229-9197 (print version) ISSN 1875-0052 (electronic version)
Mechanical Properties of Continuous Natural Fibres (Jute, Hemp, Flax) Reinforced Polypropylene Composites Modified with Hollow Glass Microspheres Habib Awais1,2, Yasir Nawab2, A. Anjang1, Hazizan Md Akil3, and M. Shukur Zainol Abidin1* 1
School of Aerospace Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang 14300, Malaysia Faculty of Engineering & Technology, National Textile University, Faisalabad 37610, Pakistan 3 School of Materials and Mineral Resources Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Penang 14300, Malaysia (Received November 19, 2019; Revised December 30, 2019; Accepted January 11, 2020) 2
Abstract: Natural fibre reinforced polymer (NFRP) composites are emerging as a viable alternative to metal parts for lightweight components in the automotive and aerospace industry. They are economical and eco-friendly, but their use is confined due to their performance properties. Currently, fillers are often incorporated in NFRP composites to modify their properties. This study explores the reinforcing effects of hollow glass microspheres (HGM) as fillers in continuous NFRP composites. Continuous NFRP laminates were fabricated using woven fabrics (jute, hemp, flax, polypropylene) and HGM with compression moulding. Tensile, flexural and impact tests were conducted to investigate the influence of HGM on the mechanical properties of these laminates. The results indicate that the loading of 1.5 % HGM improves the tensile and flexural properties, but further addition of HGM (3 %) leads to a decline in these properties; furthermore, the impact strength was significantly improved (17 %, 8 %, 24 %) in jute, hemp and flax laminates, respectively by the addition of 3 % HGM. Keywords: Polymer-matrix composites, Mechanical testing, Natural fibres, Fillers, Hollow glass microspheres
glass enclosure of spheres. HGM are the free-flowing particles with a smooth spherical surface that hinder the generation of stress concentration at the interface with the matrix [17]. Low density, high specific compressive strength [18], excellent dispersion, bio-compatibility [19], chemical stability and low thermal conductivity, render them attractive for aerospace, marine [20], civil [21], and automotive applications. HGM have been previously incorporated in diver suits [22], cementitious [23], glass fibre [24], highdensity polyethylene (HDPE) [25], polylactide (PLA) [26], polypropylene [27] based composites as well as coir [28], piassava [29] and bamboo fibre [30] reinforced polymer composites to tailor the various performance properties of the resultant materials by a plausible synergistic hybridization effect. An increase of up to 14 % in tensile strength has been witnessed by the 5 wt.% loading of HGM in literature [30]. Although many of the aforementioned literature elucidates the use of HGM in FRP composites, mostly for synthetic fibres, short fibres and cementitious materials, however, to the best knowledge of the authors, there is a scarcity in the literature about using
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