Paper Title
Flexural and Impact Characterization of UV Treated Areca Fiber Polypropylene Composites
Abstract
Polymer based natural fiber reinforced composites are emerging as a promising new engineering material. The
main advantage of natural fibers are low density, low cost, biodegradability, acceptable specific properties, availability, less
wear during extracting as well as manufacturing composites. This investigation has been carried out to evaluate the
interfacial bonding between fiber and polypropylene, flexural and impact properties of composite prepared by areca fibers
with randomly distributed fibers. The extracted areca fibers were treated by Ultraviolet radiation to obtain better interfacial
bonding between fiber and matrix. The test samples have been prepared as per ASTM standards using injection moulding
technique at different fiber weight loading fractions (10%, 20%, 30%, and 40%). Flexural and impact tests have been carried
out on the plain polypropylene composites and developed areca fiber-reinforced polypropylene based composites. The
treated and untreated areca fiber-reinforced polypropylene composites have been modeled and analyzed by means of finite
element method and compared with flexural experimental results. It has been observed that flexural and impact strength
increases with increase in the fiber loading percentage when compared to plain polypropylene and untreated areca fiber
composites beyond 20% for treated areca fiber composite. The present work also includes the analysis of areca fiber
reinforced polypropylene composites using FEA with various fiber volume fractions and these results were validated with
the experimental results.
Key words- Areca Fiber, Flexural Strength, Impact Strength, Interface bonding, UV Treatment.