Maize–Natural Fiber as Reinforcement with Polymers for Structural Applications

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 4-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krittirash Yorseng ◽  
Mavinkere R. Sanjay ◽  
Jiratti Tengsuthiwat ◽  
Harikrishnan Pulikkalparambil ◽  
Jyotishkumar Parameswaranpillai ◽  
...  

Background: This era has seen outstanding achievements in materials science through the advances in natural fiber-based composites. The new environmentally friendly and sustainability concerns have imposed the chemists, biologists, researchers, engineers, and scientists to discover the engineering and structural applications of natural fiber reinforced composites. Objective: To present a comprehensive evaluation of information from 2000 to 2018 in United States patents in the field of natural fibers and their composite materials. Methods: The patent data have been taken from the external links of US patents such as IFI CLAIMS Patent Services, USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet, Global Dossier, and Discuss. Results: The present world scenario demands the usage of natural fibers from agricultural and forest byproducts as a reinforcement material for fiber reinforced composites. Natural fibers can be easily extracted from plants and animals. Recently natural fiber in nanoscale is preferred over micro and macro scale fibers due to its superior thermo-mechanical properties. However, the choice of macro, micro, and nanofibers depends on their applications. Conclusion: This document presents a comprehensive evaluation of information from 2000 to 2018 in United States patents in the field of natural fibers and their composite materials.


Author(s):  
Faris M. AL-Oqla

The available potential plant waste could be worthy material to strengthen polymers to make sustainable products and structural components. Therefore, modeling the natural fiber polymeric-based composites is currently required to reveal the mechanical performance of such polymeric green composites for various green products. This work numerically investigates the effect of various fiber types, fiber loading, and reinforcement conditions with different polymer matrices towards predicting the mechanical performance of such natural fiber composites. Cantilever beam and compression schemes were considered as two different mechanical loading conditions for structural applications of such composite materials. Finite element analysis was conducted to modeling the natural fiber composite materials. The interaction between the fibers and the matrices was considered as an interfacial friction force and was determined from experimental work by the pull out technique for each polymer and fiber type. Both polypropylene and polyethylene were considered as composite matrices. Olive and lemon leaf fibers were considered as reinforcements. Results have revealed that the deflection resistance of the natural fiber composites in cantilever beam was enhanced for several reinforcement conditions. The fiber reinforcement was capable of enhancing the mechanical performance of the polymers and was the best in case of 20 wt.% polypropylene/lemon composites due to better stress transfer within the composite. However, the 40 wt.% case was the worst in enhancing the mechanical performance in both cantilever beam and compression cases. The 30 wt.% of polyethylene/olive fiber was the best in reducing the deflection of the cantilever beam case. The prediction of mechanical performance of natural fiber composites via proper numerical analysis would enhance the process of selecting the appropriate polymer and fiber types. It can contribute finding the proper reinforcement conditions to enhance the mechanical performance of the natural fiber composites to expand their reliable implementations in more industrial applications.


2017 ◽  
Vol 867 ◽  
pp. 41-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chitra Umachitra ◽  
N.K. Palaniswamy ◽  
O.L. Shanmugasundaram ◽  
P.S. Sampath

Natural fibers have been used to reinforce materials in many composite structures. Many types of natural fibers have been investigated including flax, hemp, ramie, sisal, abaca, banana etc., due to the advantage that they are light weight, renewable resources and have marketing appeal. These agricultural wastes can also be used to prepare fiber reinforced polymer hybrid composites in various combinations for commercial use. Application of composite materials in structural applications has presented the need for the engineering analysis. The present work focuses on the fabrication of polymer matrix composites by using natural fibers like banana and cotton which are abundant in nature and analysing the effect of mechanical properties of the composites on different surface treatments on the fabric. The effect of various surface treatments (NaOH, SLS, KMnO4) on the mechanical properties namely tensile, flexural and impact was analyzed and are discussed in this project. Analysing the material characteristics of the compression moulded composites; their results were measured on sections of the material to make use of the natural fiber reinforced polymer composite material for automotive seat shell manufacturing.


Fibers ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 59 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yunlong Jia ◽  
Bodo Fiedler

Poor moisture resistance of natural fiber reinforced bio-composites is a major concern in structural applications. Many efforts have been devoted to alleviate degradation of bio-composites caused by moisture absorption. Among them, fiber pre-treatment has been proven to be effective. This paper proposes an alternative “green” fiber pretreatment with furfuryl alcohol. Pre-treatments with different parameters were performed and the influence on the mechanical properties of fiber bundles and composites was investigated. Moisture resistance of composites was evaluated by water absorption tests. Mechanical properties of composites with different water contents were analyzed in tensile tests. The results show that furfuryl alcohol pretreatment is a promising method to improve moisture resistance and mechanical properties (e.g., Young’s modulus increases up to 18%) of flax fiber composites.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
ANSHUL SINGHAL ◽  
AMY LANGHORST ◽  
ANKUSH BANSAL ◽  
MIHAELA BANU ◽  
ALAN TAUB

Natural plant fibers compared to glass fibers can provide a cost effective, lightweight and carbon negative reinforcement for polymer composites. However, the current commercial fiber extraction process induces defects including middle lamellae weakening during retting and kink bands during mechanical working. This leads to high variability in mechanical properties, making these fibers less favorable for structural applications at industrial scale. The aim of current research is to reduce this variability by studying the underlying mechanisms of natural fiber extraction to minimize fiber damage occurring at various steps in the process. In this study, flax stems were retted using the conventional dew/field and lab scale controlled enzymatic retting. The hand decorticated fibers from both methods were compared and enzymatic retting showed promising results in producing fine and uniform fibers as compared to fibers extracted by dew retting. To establish the constitutive parameters of the fibers for Finite Element Modeling (FEM), single retted flax stems were compression tested using a Texture Analyzer. This data can serve as the basis for modeling the mechanical deformation of plant stems passing through breaking rollers which is the first step in extraction after retting. The goal is to optimize the roller design and process conditions required to extract fibers with minimal damage and variability.


Author(s):  
P. Venkateshwar Reddy ◽  
R.V. Saikumar Reddy ◽  
J. Lakshmana Rao ◽  
D. Mohana Krishnudu ◽  
P. Rajendra Prasad

Author(s):  
Alejandro Maranon ◽  
Yan Sanabria ◽  
Mari´a F. Contreras ◽  
Wilson Hormaza

Laminated composites made of natural fiber and polymeric resins have a strong potential for engineering applications as they offer an attractive combination of mechanical and physical properties together with their environmental friendly character. Among structural applications, hybrid ballistic systems made of natural fiber composites have attracted the attention of engineers and scientists because of their excellent energy absorption compared to mild steel. In this paper, the impact and tensile properties of fique fibers (fucraea) reinforced composites are investigated. Plain woven fique-fabrics were embedded in polyester resin to produce five ply laminated panels. It was found that fique composites exhibited similar energy absorption than other natural composites reported in the literature.


2013 ◽  
Vol 748 ◽  
pp. 211-215
Author(s):  
Borhan Nurulaini ◽  
Romli A.Z. ◽  
Mohd Hanafiah Abidin

New knowledge in findings potential usage of natural fiber as new material in composite technology has been increased gradually in years and these natural fiber materials are well known as competent material which can become an alternative material to the conventional and synthetic materials for suitable applications. In this research, Casuarina equisetifolia leaf was used as bio-based fiber and unsaturated polyester composite as the matrix due to its natural surface roughness without any chemical treatment. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of various weight loadings of Casuarina equisetifolia in unsaturated polyester composites on the tensile test and morphological studies. The composite samples were fabricated by using press machine with mould dimension of (15x15x0.3) cm. From the tensile test results, tensile strength of the composite samples decreases with the increment of Casuarina equisetifolia by weight loadings. The surface morphology of the fractures composite samples was then analyzed using the microscopy technique (SEM) and found the evidence of fractured fiber breakage and voids content of the samples. Base on the result obtained, the tensile strength at 30% up to 50% weight loading of Casuarina equisetifolia has the potential to be used in non-structural applications.


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