Mechanical behavior of mallow fabric reinforced polyester matrix composites

Abstract

Woven fabrics made of a natural lignocellulosic mallow fiber have been used for a long time in common clothes. Recently, these fabrics are being considered as reinforcement for engineering composites. This work investigates the basic mechanical behavior of polyester composites reinforced with up to 40 vol% of mallow fabric. Room temperature tensile tests allow the evaluation of properties, such as the ultimate strength, elastic modulus, resilience and total strain. An improvement in these properties was found with increasing amount of mallow fabric in the composite. Indeed, a significant increase in strength, modulus and resilience occurred up to 40 vol% of fabric reinforcement. A slight increase was also observed in the total strain. Fracture analysis by scanning electron microscopy revealed that this improved performance of the reinforced composites might directly be associated with arrest of cracks propagation in the brittle polyester matrix by the mallow fibers in the fabric. Keywords: Mallow fabric, Polyester composite, Tensile properties, Fracture mechanism