Enhancement of the Mechanical Behavior of Starch-Palm Fiber Composites

Enhancement of the Mechanical Behavior of Starch-Palm Fiber Composites

H. Megahed, M. Emara, Mahmoud Farag, Abdalla Wifi, ‎Mostafa El. Shazly

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Abstract. This study discusses the fabrication of starch- based hybrid ‎composite ‎reinforced with ‎chopped randomly oriented flax, sisal, and date palm fibers. The tensile properties, before and after chemical treatment, as well as the morphology of the fibers were ‎evaluated.‎ The hybrid composites were fabricated using hot compaction technique at ‎‎5MPa and 160°C for 30min. Fracture surface investigations using field emission scanning microscopy showed a good ‎adhesion between fibers and matrix. The fracture surface revealed the presence of matrix micro cracks as well as ‎fibers ‎fracture and pullout. Hybrid composites containing 20 vf % sisal, and 5 vf % flax at‎‎ 25 vf % date palm as well as 35vf% sisal, and 5 vf % flax at 10 vf % date palm had the optimum mechanical ‎properties and consequently can serve as competitive eco-friendly candidates for various ‎applications. A finite element (FE) approach was developed to simplify the treatment of random orientation of chopped fibers and predict elastic modulus using Embedded Element technique. Analyses based on rule of hybrid composite (ROHM), COX rule, and Leowenstein rule are presented to ‎validate both experimental and FE numerical results. The FE results compared favorably with the experimental results.

Keywords
hybrid composites, date palm fiber, chopped fibers, polymer-matrix composites

Published online 4/20/2019, 10 pages
Copyright © 2019 by the author(s)
Published under license by Materials Research Forum LLC., Millersville PA, USA

Citation: H. Megahed, M. Emara, Mahmoud Farag, Abdalla Wifi, ‎Mostafa El. Shazly, Enhancement of the Mechanical Behavior of Starch-Palm Fiber Composites, Materials Research Proceedings, Vol. 11, pp 201-210, 2019

DOI: https://doi.org/10.21741/9781644900178-15

The article was published as article 15 of the book By-Products of Palm Trees and Their Applications

Content from this work may be used under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 licence. Any further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the title of the work, journal citation and DOI.

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