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Effect of Water Absorption On Pultruded Jute - Glass Fiber-Reinforced Unsaturated Polyester Hybrid Composites
Effect of Water Absorption On Pultruded Jute - Glass Fiber-Reinforced Unsaturated Polyester Hybrid Composites
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JOURNAL OF
COMPOSITE
M AT E R I A L S
Article
Abstract
The use of natural fibers in polymer composites has given renewed interest to the development of green composites
today. However, the moisture absorption of natural fibers gives serious concern, especially for their potential outdoor
applications. This article reports the study results on the water absorption of pultruded jute/glass fiber-reinforced
unsaturated polyester hybrid composites, which was subjected to various water conditions and their effects on its
mechanical properties. Water absorption tests were performed by immersing composite specimens into three different
water conditions, namely: distilled water, sea water, and acidic water, which were at room temperature, for a period of
3 weeks. The characteristic parameter of diffusion coefficient (D) and maximum moisture content (Mm) were determined
from the obtained water absorption curves. The water absorption behavior of the glass/jute fiber-reinforced unsaturated
polyester hybrid composite was found to follow a non-Fickian behavior. The effects of the various aqueous environments
on the flexural and compression characteristics were investigated in this study. The flexural and compression properties
were found to decrease with an increasing percentage of water uptakes.
Keywords
Fibers, hybrid composites, environmental degradation, mechanical property, pultrusion
Introduction
With an increasing environmental awareness by the
general public, there are active research interests on
the studies of natural ber-reinforced polymer matrix
composites. This is largely due to their eco-friendliness
and cost eectiveness.1 The advantages of natural ber
composites are, reasonable strength, lightweight, free
from health hazards, biodegradable, and therefore,
their potential to be used as building materials.24 The
natural bers also promise sustainability, cheaper, and
lighter in weight, which provides better stiness per
weight than glass.5
Despite the advantages listed above, their limitations
include, a lower modulus, low strength and poor moisture resistance, and especially their absorption when
compared with synthetic bers, such as glass.6
Natural bers also have poor wettability by non-polar
plastics, and insucient adhesion between untreated
bers and the polymer matrix, which can lead to debonding with age.7,8 The moisture absorption, by
52
Materials
Jute bers were supplied by Alam Fiber Impex Ltd,
Bangladesh, in a twisted roving form. Glass bers
were in a direct roving form and were supplied by
MMFG Composites Sdn. Bhd. Unsaturated polyester
resin (Crystic P9901) was purchased from the Revertex
Company, Malaysia. Table 1 gives an overview of the
jute bers properties. The properties of the glass ber
and unsaturated polyester resin can be found in
Tables 2 and 3.
Zamri et al.
53
Material characterization
Water absorption investigation. Specimens were
immersed into three dierent aqueous environments,
which were distilled water, sea water, and an acidic
solution. For the water absorption measurements, the
specimens were withdrawn from the solution, wiped dry
to remove surface moisture, and then weighted using an
electronic balance (accurate to 104 g) to monitor the
Properties
Unit
Value
Tex
Density
Diameter
Tensile strength
Specific strength
E-modulus
Specific modulus
Elongation
g/km
g/cm3
mm
MPa
UTS/density
GPa
E/density
%
828
1.3
25.2
393773
302595
26.5
20.4
1.51.8
Properties
Viscosity at 23 C
Brookfield RVT 2/10 rpm
Density
Reticulation at 23 C
Operational time
Youngs modulus
Tensile stress at break
Tensile strain at break
Unit
Value
Standard
MPas
kg/dm3
1200
1.2
ISO 2555
ISO 2811
min
MPa
MPa
%
20
4000
61
2.5
ISO 527
ISO 527
ISO 527
Unit
Value
Tex
Density14
Diameter15
Tensile strength14
Specific strength
E-modulus14
Specific modulus
Elongation14
g/km
g/cm3
mm
MPa
UTS/density
GPa
E/density
%
4400
2.5
525
25003500
10001400
70.0
28
2.5
Pulling
speed
(mm/min)
Temperature
( C)
195
350
135
135
54
Compression specimen
7.14 1012
4.46
2.68 1011
5.16
12
11
5.98 10
3.55
6.17 1012
4.30
2.23 10
4.72
2.30 1011
4.92
Figure 2. Weight gain as a function of time for (a) flexural specimen and (b) compression specimen of juteglass reinforced
unsaturated polyester hybrid composite materials exposed to distilled water, sea water, and acidic solution at room temperature.
RT
45
4.84 1012 (504)a
n/a
6.54 1012 (504)a
2.87 1013 (4700)a
10.25
n/a
10.71 (504)a
1.20 (4700)a
Duration of immersion (hours).
a
70:30
70:30 Where
50:50 of glass
and jute
70:30
66:34
Kenaf/polyester
Glass and
jute/polyester
Jute/polyester
Graphite/epoxy
68:32
55:45
10.34
n/a
21.27
4.72
25.30 (6240)a
4.46 (504)a
RT
RT
17.91 103 (6240)a
2.23 1011 (504)a
19.85 103 (6240)a
2.68 1011 (504)a
1.33 10 8 (8760)a
8.56 106 (1440)
n/a
n/a
0.55 (8760)a
0.23
n/a
n/a
Distilled
Acidic
Glass/vinylester
Glass/polyester
Mm (%) (hours)a
Matrix:fibers
ratio
Composites
system
Table 6. Comparison of moisture content (Mm) and diffusion coefficient (D) for various composites system
Sea
n/a
n/a
2
n/a
n/a
M2 M1
k p p
T2 T1
Sea
Temperature
( C)
25.10
4.92
40
40
2
Distilled
kh
4Mm
Acidic
D
References
Nosbi et al.5
Jarukumjorn,
and Suppakarn6
55
Mishra et al.2
Velmurugan
and Manikandan3
Wambua et al.4
Zamri et al.
56
Figure 3. (a) Flexural strength, (b) maximum flexural strain, and (c) flexural modulus for juteglass fiber-reinforced unsaturated
polyester hybrid composite after exposed to environmental conditions.
Zamri et al.
57
(b) 900
(a) 900
Standard
1st Day
1st Week
2nd Week
3rd Week
700
Stress, MPa
600
500
800
600
400
500
400
300
300
200
200
100
100
0
0
10
20
30
Standard
1st Day
1st Week
2nd Week
3rd Week
700
Stress, MPa
800
40
50
Strain,
x103
60
70
80
90
10
20
30
40
50
Strain,
x103
60
70
80
90
(c) 900
Standard
1st Day
1st Week
2nd Week
3rd Week
800
700
Stress, MPa
600
500
400
300
200
100
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Strain, x103
Figure 4. Stressstrain curves for flexural specimen of juteglass fiber-reinforced unsaturated polyester hybrid composite after
exposed to (a) distilled water, (b) sea water, and (c) acidic solution.
58
Figure 5. (a) Compression strength, (b) maximum compression strain, and (c) compression modulus for juteglass fiber-reinforced
unsaturated polyester hybrid composite after exposed to environmental conditions.
Zamri et al.
59
Figure 6. Stressstrain curves for compression specimen of juteglass fiber-reinforced unsaturated polyester hybrid composite after
exposed to (a) distilled water, (b) sea water, and (c) acidic solution.
the other hand, Figure 6(a)(c), show the corresponding stressstrain curves for each environmental condition investigated (i.e., distilled water, sea water, and the
acidic solution). Figure 5 indicates a trend of decrease
in compression strength and compression modulus with
an increasing immersion time. However, it was found
that there are some extraordinary increases in strength
and modulus, during the immersion. These compression results show a similar trend with the exural testing discussed in the above section. There are
uctuations, as indicated by the error bars, causing variations in the results, which could be attributed to the
uneven surfaces of the compression specimen. As a
result, a slightly eccentric applied load will cause premature buckling in the composite materials, rather than
the intrinsic compressive failure. This produced similar
results to those discussed in exural testing.
The compression properties for glass ber-reinforced
unsaturated polyester-reinforced pultruded composite
and jute ber-reinforced unsaturated polyester-pultruded composite are shown in Figure 5(a)(c), for
comparison purposes. On the other hand, the compression strength for polyester resin is shown in Figure 5(a).
Both of the UP/glass and UP/jute samples are made of
60
Conclusion
The study of water absorption eects, on the mechanical properties of jute/glass ber-reinforced unsaturated
polyester hybrid composite, has been performed under
dierent water conditions, which were distilled water,
sea water, and acidic solutions at room temperature.
From the results obtained, the following conclusions
can be drawn:
. The water absorption pattern is found to follow nonFickian behavior. The highest values of diusion
coecient (D) and maximum moisture content
value (Mm) were recorded for specimens immersed
in distilled water, then followed by the acidic solution, and nally seawater.
. Hybridization of natural bers with synthetic bers
decreases the maximum moisture absorption and
increases the mechanical properties of the
composites.
Acknowledgment
The authors are grateful to Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM814023) for their assistance and contribution that has resulted
in this article.
References
1. Panthapulakkal S and Sain M. Studies on the water
absorption properties of short hempglass fiber hybrid
polypropylene composites. J Compos Mater 2007; 41(15):
18711883.
2. Mishra S, Mohanty AK, Drzal LT, Misra M, Parija S,
Nayak SK, et al. Studies on mechanical performance of
biofibre/glass reinforced polyester hybrid composites.
Compos Sci Technol 2003; 63(10): 13771385.
3. Velmurugan R and Manikandan V. Mechanical properties
of palmyra/glass fiber hybrid composites. Composites Part
A 2007; 38(10): 22162226.
Zamri et al.
61