Analysis of Sisal Fiber Waviness Effect on the Elastic Properties of Natural Composites Using Analytical and Experimental Methods

Abstract

Raising awareness of energy balance to minimize the global warming and usage of eco-friendly material has encouraged many researchers to replace synthetic materials with natural resources. Natural fibers are the alternative to man-made fibers to produce many structural parts in automotive, marine and aircraft. In the present work, sisal fiber is selected to prepare a natural composite. Sisal fiber waviness effect on the elastic properties such as longitudinal modulus (E1), transverse modulus (E2), shear modulus (G12 and G23), major (μ12) and minor Poisson’s ratio (μ21) are identified by considering different wavy patterns of half-sine waviness, full sine waviness and combination of half-sine and full sine wavy natural sisal fiber (Mixed waviness). The objective of the present work is achieved by conducting suitable experiments and numerical simulations. The influence of the waviness ratio (A/λ) on the same properties is identified with the Micromechanics approach. The influence of mixed waviness of sisal fiber on the elastic properties is identified with experimental as well as Micro and Macromechanics principles. It is observed that the waviness of the fiber has a significant effect on the composite modulus in all directions.

Keywords

• word
• natural fiber
• young’s modulus
• sisal fiber
• waviness
• micromechanics
• experimentation
• micromechanics and finite element method