Evaluation of elevated temperature influence on mechanical properties of a commercial unrefined bagasse fiber-polypropylene composite

Abstract

An experimental investigation was conducted to evaluate the effect of elevated temperatures, ranging from room temperature to 80oC, on mechanical characteristics of a commercial bagasse fiber/polypropylene composite. The test results were used to determine the temperature dependencies of the mechanical properties of the studied composite material at temperatures up to 80°C in order to develop temperature adjustment factors for the use in structural applications. The results have shown that as temperature increases, the material become more ductile due to increased plastic deformation gets lower stiffness and fails at higher strains. The resulted adjustment factors were different for each loading mode and the results also have indicated that the influence of elevated temperatures on values of modulus was higher than that on strengths.

Keywords

• Mechanical properties
• bagasse fibers
• elevated temperatures
• temperature adjustment factors
• Polypropylene