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MECHANICAL AND THERMAL PROPERTIES OF SUGAR PALM YARN FIBRE

REINFORCED UNSATURATED POLYESTER COMPOSITES WITH DIFFERENT
FIBRE ORIENTATION

Experiment Findings · March 2019

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.22552.03845

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Mohd Nurazzi Norizan

Putra University, Malaysia
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 February2019,Volum e 2, Issue 2 ISSN:2101-9123
INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH AND SCIENCES (ISJARS)

MECHANICAL AND THERMAL PROPERTIES OF SUGAR PALM YARN FIBRE

REINFORCED UNSATURATED POLYESTER COMPOSITES WITH DIFFERENT
FIBRE ORIENTATION
1Mohd Nurazzi N * & 2Khalina A
1,2Faculty of Engineering, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
2Institute of Tropical Forestry and Forest Products (INTROP), Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia

ARTICLE DETAILS ABSTRACT

Keyw ords
Fibre orientation; fibre end effect; sugar
palm fibre; unsaturated polyester; DMA.
* Characterisation, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) w as conducted to characterize the
Corresponding Author
Email: mohd.nurazzi@gmail.com
In this article, a new structural composite material reinforced w ith a different orientation (0°,
45°, and 90°) of natural fibers is prepared and tested. The reinforcement used is sugar palm
yarn fiber and the matrix used is unsaturated polyester resin (UPE). The composites w ere
characterized for tensile, flexural, impact and compression properties using ASTM D790,
ASTM D790, ASTM D250, and ASTM D3410 standards, respectiv ely. For the thermal
on storage modulus (E') and damping behavior (tan δ) of the composites. The highest
mechanical performance of composites w as achieved at 0° of fiber orientation composites
follow ed by 45° and 90° of fiber orientation. How ever, inconsistent results for tensile and
impact test w ere observed at 90° fibre orientation w hich may due to the effect of short and
discontinuous fibres w hich related to fibre end effects w hen force is applied in a different
direction. The higher storage modulus (3350 MPa) w as found at 30 w t.% w ith 0° of fibre
orientation and also show s the low est tan δ (0.36) w hich refers to the better damping
properties of the composites.

1. Introduction materials. Since fibre-reinforced materials undergo various types

of dynamic stressing during service studies of the viscoelastic
The search for alternative fibres as replacements for synthetic
behaviour and relaxations of these materials are of great
fibre has generated a high level of interest. Natural fibres are
importance. This test has been widely employed for investigating
known to be abundant, have low density, inexpensive, readily
the structures and viscoelastic behaviour of polymeric materials
available from renewable sources and have shown significant
for determining their relevant stiffness and damping
performance in term of strength and stiffness enhancement
characteristics for various applications. The dynamic properties
(Mohd Nurazzi et al. 2017a, Yahaya et al. 2016). Natural fibre
of polymeric materials are of considerable practical significance
composites are essentially planted fibres embedded within a
when determined over a range of temperature and frequencies
thermoset or thermoplastic polymer. The density of these natural
(Nair et al. 2001).
fibres is similar to their plastic counterparts, which are usually 40
to 50% lower than the density of glass fibre (Rajan et al. 2015,
The main purpose of this study is to characterise the
Saba et al. 2014). The industrial use of natural fibre was not only
mechanical performance of sugar palm yarn fibres reinforced
driven by cost reduction, but also by other issues related to
UPE in order to use them as reinforcement for structural
overall environmental awareness. In Europe, the EU “end-of-life
composites materials. In fibre-polymeric composites, the shape
vehicle” directive imposes that 85% of all vehicle component
of composites and its surface appearance were awarded by
weight should be recyclable by 2005, which would later be
matrix while fibres act as load and stress carriers under different
increased to 95% by 2015 (Madsen & Lilholt, 2003).
loading conditions. Therefore, the orientation of natural fibres will
have significant effects and plays an important role in controlling
The physical and mechanical properties of natural fibres are
the mechanical properties of the composites. It has been
determined by their chemical and physical composition, such as
reported that the mechanical performance of the composites
the structure of the fibres, cellulose content, their inherent
decreases with an increase of the fibres orientation (0°, 10°, 30°,
microfibrillar angle and cross section and degree of
45°, 60°, and 90°) with respect to the direction of applied force
polymerisation. The swelling of the fibres, due to moisture
(Brahim & Cheikh, 2007, Jacob et al. 2007, Tungjitpornkull &
absorption, has been a major drawback for natural fibres, causing
Sombatsompop, 2009). Moreover, according to Shalwan &
a weak bonding to the fibre-matrix interaction in the composites
Yousif et al. (2013), at the transverse direction, the mechanical
(Cheung et al. 2009). In this regard, there are several factors that
properties of fibre/polymer composite are controlled by the m atrix
influence the properties of natural fibres reinforced composites:
rather than fibres as stress and load carrier, and vice versa.
(1) interfacial adhesion of fibres with matrix, (2) effect of fibre
orientation, (3) effect of fibre loading and (4) chem ical
compositions of fibres (Zin et al. 2017). The DMA test is an
important technique which is used to study the e ffect of
2. Methodology and characterisations
temperature on the mechanical properties of composite

INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH AND SCIENCES (ISJARS)
2.1. Materials
Sugar palm fibres (L/D ratio 66.67) were obtained from
Kampung Kuala Jempol, Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. UPE (RTM
grade, 40% styrene content, the density of 1.025g/cm 3), methyl
ethyl ketone peroxide (MEKP) (Butanox-M50) as a curing initiator
and cobalt napthanate as a reaction accelerator were supplied by
CCP Composites Resins Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. The chemical
composition of the sugar palm fibre as shown in Table 1 was
determined using the in-house method of the Malaysia
Agricultural Research and Development Institute (MARDI) while
the mechanical properties of both fibre and UPE are shown in
Table 2. A manual hand spinning machine from SDL ATLAS was
used to make a sugar palm yarn fibre with 2500tex (Norizan et al.
2018).
Table 1. Chemical compositions of sugar palm fibre
Table 2. Mechanical properties of sugar palm fibre and UPE
composite
2.2. Fabrication of composites
Composites with varying fibre loads of 10 wt.%, 20 wt.%, 30
wt.%, 40 wt.% and 50 wt.% were prepared using a hand -layup
process. The sugar palm yarn fibre was placed horizontally in a
closed steel mould with dimensions 150mm x 150mm x 3mm.
Initially, 1% of MEKP as the initiator was mixed well with the UPE
resin, followed by mixing with 0.2% of cobalt. Then, the mixed
resin was poured over the fibre and compressed using a hot press
machine at 70°C and 80bar for 30minutes (Mohd Nurazzi et al.
2017b). A mould was prepared by spraying with silicone mould
release agent to avoid any stacking with the composites. The
preparation of composites was repeated with different angles of
orientation of fibre with 45° and 90°. Figure 1 shows the
arrangement of yarn fibre in the mould.
Figure 1. Schematic diagram of composites with different fibre
orientation
2.3. Characterisations
February2019,Volum e 2, Issue 2 ISSN:2101-9123
The tensile test was performed using an Instron 3365 test
machine according to ASTM D3039. The dimensions of the
samples were 150mm x 15mm x 3mm. The gauge length was
60mm, with a crosshead speed of 5mm/min applied for the test.
A flexural test was performed using the three-point bending
method using an Instron 3365 test machine according to ASTM
D790. The dimensions of the samples were 127mm x 13mm x
3mm. The crosshead speed was set at 5mm/min. An izod impact
test was performed using an Instron CEAST 9050 testing
machine with a capacity of the pendulum of 5.5J according to
ASTM D256. The dimensions of the samples were 65mm x10mm
x 30mm. Compression testing was carried out using an INSTRON
3366 testing machine with a 10kN load-cell at room temperature.
The testing procedures were carried out in accordance with
ASTM D3410. The cross-head speed used was 5mm/min andthe
dimensions of the samples were 120mm x 10mm x 3mm. For the
DMA test, rectangular specimens having size 60mm x 10mm x
3mm were used. The DMA Q800 from TA Instruments was used
for the evaluation of dynamic mechanical thermal behaviours of
the composites. The experiment was performed under three-point
bending mode at an oscillation frequency of 1Hz. The
temperature was ramped from 30 to 150°C under controlled
sinusoidal strain with a heating rate of 5°C/min.
3. Results and discussion
Tensile properties
Figure 2 presents the variation of tensile properties of
composites with different fibre loadings and fibre orientations. It
shows that the 0° (longitudinal) fibre orientation indicated higher
tensile properties compared to the composite with 45° and 90°
fibre orientation. Higher tensile strength and elongation at break
were obtained for fibre orientation composites with 0° fibre
orientation. This was because composites with 0° orientation
possessed long and continuous sugar palm yarn fibres that
resisted and transferred the tensile forces that were aligned
perpendicular to the direction of force, whereas the other two
orientations (45° and 90°) contained short and discontinuous
fibres which were related to the fibre end effects (Tungjitpornkull
& Sombatsompop, 2009).
According to Mortavazian & Fatemi (2015), the significantly
lower tensile strength of the composites in the 45° and 90°
(transverse) orientation compared to 0° (longitudinal) fibre
orientation would be due to the strain limit of the fibres. In the
longitudinal direction, fibres are highly aligned with loading
direction. Therefore, the fibres would have a low capacity to deal
with strain, resulting in a low ductility composite. As the average
number of fibres with angles larger than 0° with respect to the
loading direction increases, the failure is more dominated by the
matrix and interfacial properties. Therefore, matrix straining is
more dominant in the 45° and 90° directions. A lower ductility was
observed for the 90° angle or transverse direction. For the 90°
fibre orientation, inconsistent results were observed for the tensile
strength, elongation at break and tensile modulus results. When
the fibres are transversely orientated from the direction of the
tensile force, the fibres are aligned perpendicular to the direction
of force and they cannot take part in stress transfer from the
matrix. Hence, effectively the stress transfer mechanism cannot
occur. Furthermore, stress was transferred to the area of rich
February 2019, Volume 2, Issue 2 INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH AND SCIENCES (ISJARS)

resin. In addition, the deviation in fibre angle amounted to a

maximum of 5 to 10° especially for the 0° fibre orientation
5.0 0' 45' 90'

Tensile modulus (GPa)

composites instead of a straight alignment which manifested as a
4.0
slight waviness of the results (Mohd Nurazzi et al. 2017b).
3.0
The strain at tensile strength, as a measure of ductility,
indicates some variations with specimen angle, as indicated in 2.0
Figure 2. The strain at tensile strength for the 45° and 90°
orientation for the composites was about 60 to 70% below those 1.0
with a longitudinal direction of 0°. Fibres orientated at 45° and 90°
impart greater rigidity to composite as the fibre has difficulty to 0.0
twist and bend at this angle. The rigidity imposed by the fibre 10 20 30 40 50
caused a restriction in mobility of the chains and reduced the Fibre loading (wt.%)
flexibility of the polymer matrix. Meanwhile, the fibre orientation
caused greater rigidity contributed by the fibre itself compared to Figure 2. Tensile properties of sugar palm yarn composites with
the intrinsic thermoset unsaturated polyester composite. As 0° (Mohd Nurazzi et al. 2017c), 45° and 90° of fibre orientation
shown in Figure 2, tensile toughness was substantially higher for
the 0° orientation, which was caused by the high toughness of the Flexural properties
fibre. Similarly, a greater fibre composition caused the In a three-point flexural test, failures mainly occurred due to
composition to be more ductile with high elongation and modulus.
compression, shearing (in the centre of the applied force) and
Moreover, the fibre has shown optimum rigidity at 30% in the
tension (middle of the force applied) (Mishra et al. 2003). Figure
longitudinal direction. Here, the composite rigidity was reducedby
3 shows the flexural properties of the composites with the different
10 to 15% with the higher composition above 30%. fibre loadings and fibre orientations. It shows that 30 wt.% of fibre
loading at 0° of fibre orientation indicated the higher value of
flexural strength between which is 200 to 400% higher compared
to the 45° and 90° samples.

2.0 0' 45' 90'

Elongation at break (%)

1.5

1.0

0.5

0.0
10 20 30 40 50
Fibre loading (wt.%)

Figure 3. Flexural properties of sugar palm yarn composites

with 0° (Mohd Nurazzi et al. 2017c), 45° and 90° of fibre
orientation

Since the load was subjected at the middle of the composites

(Figure 4) until failure occurred, the incorporation of long and
continuous fibres in the composites acted as carriers of the load
and the stress was transferred from the matrix along
 February2019,Volum e 2, Issue 2 ISSN:2101-9123
INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH AND SCIENCES (ISJARS)

Applied force

Crack initiation area Compression mode

Long and continous fibres

Tension mode Tension mode

(a) (b)

45° fibres Short and perpendicular

Crack initiation area orientation Crack initiation area fibres oreintation

(c) (d)

the fibres. This led to an effective and uniform stress distribution.

However, for the 45° and 90° orientations, the short and
discontinuous (fibre end effects) fibres when the force was
applied at the middle detracted from the effectiveness of the
uniform stress distribution. This can be observed in the 90° fibre
orientation composites. For 90° of fibre orientation or the
transverse direction, cracks could occur at any place in the
composite that was not supported by the fibres and the areas
without fibres. The propagation of cracks near the fibre ends and
the constraint effect of the fibres in crack propagation
perpendicular or transverse to the loading direction also occurred.
Figure 5. Impact properties of sugar palm yarn composites
Figure 4 (b), (c), and (d) shows the schematic diagram of
with 0° (Mohd Nurazzi et al. 2017c), 45° and 90° of fibre
composites with different fibre orientations.
orientation
Impact properties
Comparing the results of 0° of fibre orientation composites of
The impact properties of the composites are defined by the impact strength with tensile, flexural and compression; it shows
ability of the composites to absorb high speed applied stress in that the impact properties results show much lower and
resisting fractures. The effect of fibre orientation on the impact inconsistent values. This is due to the faster initiation of cracking
strength of the composites is shown in Figure 5. It was observed to failure because of the high speed of applied force. Hence the
that the 40wt.% of fibre loading was higher at 0° fibre orientation stress transfer was dominantly transferred to the rich area resin
(73.23KJ/m2) compared to the 45° (8.26KJ/m2) and 90° of the composites.
(2.45KJ/m2). This could be due to the presence of long and
continuous sugar palm yarn fibres in the composites with 0° Compression properties
orientation which allowed the composite to resist sudden high
The compression properties were analysed by compressing
force transfer along the length of the composite and low fibre end
the samples to shorten them and the materials tended to spread
defects. The alignment of the sugar palm fibre bundles, which
in the lateral direction, hence increasing the cross -sectional area
were parallel to the direction of the impact force, may have helped
until they reached failure or buckling. However, it was quite
absorb the impact force imparted to the test samples efficiently
impossible to increase the cross-sectional area of the composites
compared to the 45° and 90° fibre orientation composites.
due to the brittleness of the unsaturated polyester composites. As
depicted in Figure 6, the compressive strength and modulus for
0°, 45°, and 90° fibre orientation increased with increasing fibre
loading up to 40wt.%. In comparison, the highest

INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH AND SCIENCES (ISJARS)
value of compressive strength and modulus was achieved at 0°
fibre orientation at 44.06MPa and 5.6GPa, respectively.
In addition, the highest value at the 0° fibre orientation could
be contributed by the effectiveness of the fibre bundles that
maintained their dimensional stability of the structure with respect
to the negative strain until the point of failure and buckling was
reached. Better resistance to the compression force was
exhibited with a higher composition of sugar palm fibre. The
longitudinal orientation possessed the highest compressive
strength of about 40 to 45MPa and the change in orientation
resulted in less significant reductions in compression of 10% and
20% compared to the higher composition resin. The orientation
at 45° and 90° under transverse load showed no effect with the
use of higher sugar palm yarn fibre composition.
Figure 6. Compressive properties of sugar palm yarn
composites with 0° (Mohd Nurazzi et al. 2017c), 45° and 90° of
fibre orientation
Thermal properties
Figure 7 illustrates the storage modulus of the composites
with different fibre orientations. Comparing these different fibre
orientations, the E' value decreased with changes of an angle
from 0 to 90° of fibre orientation for both the 30wt.% and 40wt.%
fibre loadings. This was because the composites with 0°
(longitudinal) orientation possessed long and continuous sugar
palm yarn fibres that resisted and transferred the stress as they
were aligned perpendicular to the direction of the force, whereas
the other two orientations (45° and 90°) contained short and
discontinuous fibres which were related to the fibre end effects.
Hence, effectively the stress transfer mechanism occurred and
reduced the stiffness of the composites as indicated by the E'
values.
February2019,Volum e 2, Issue 2 ISSN:2101-9123
Figure 7. Variation of storage modulus for 30 wt.% and 40 wt.%
of sugar palm yarn fibre loading with different fibre orientations
Figure 8. Variation of tan δ for 30 wt.% and 40 wt.% of sugar
palm yarn fibre loading with different fibre orientations
The composites with 0° showed a better damping factor with
a lower tan δ compared to the 45° and 90° of fibre orientation
composites (Figure 8). Lower tan δ values were associated with
the glass transition temperatures and reflected the improved
load-bearing properties of the composite systems (Idicula et al.
2005). In addition, the better damping factor the 0° of fibre
orientation composites showed that the composite presented a
good material in absorbing the deformation energy during a cyclic
load as a function of temperature. This was contributed by the
incorporation of long and continuous fibres in the composites that
acted as carriers of the load and the stress was transferred from
the matrix along the fibres. This led to an effective and uniform
stress distribution during the cyclic load. However, for the 45° and
90° orientations, the short and discontinuous (fibre end effects)
fibres when the cyclic load was applied detracted from the
effectiveness of the uniform stress distribution.
4. Results and discussion
In this work, the mechanical properties of sugar palm yarn
reinforced UPE composites were determined through the effects
of fibre orientation angle. The composites with 30wt.% of fibre
loading with 0° were found to give the maximum tensile and
flexural properties, while the 40wt.% of fibre loading give the
maximum impact and compressive properties compared to 45°
and 90° of fibre orientation composites. This is associated with
the continuity of fibre length to sustain the different force applied
February 2019, Volume 2, Issue 2 INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC JOURNAL OF APPLIED RESEARCH AND SCIENCES (ISJARS)

and the minimum of fibre end effects in the entire composites Modulus of Short Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites .
system. Moreover, the mechanical properties of the composites Composites Part B: Engineering, 72, 116-129.
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transverse direction. The highest E' and the lowest tan δ was Thermal and Dynamic Mechanical Analysis of Polystyrene
obtained at 30wt.% of fibre with 0° of fibre orientation. It shows Composites Reinforced w ith Short Sisal Fibres.
the sufficient fibre loading with longitudinal fibre orientation had Composites Science and Technology, 61, 2519-2529.
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(2018). The Effect of Alkaline Treatment on the Mechanic al
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Properties of Treated Sugar Palm Yarn Fibre Reinforced
Unsaturated Polyester Composites Reinforced w ith
Acknowledgment Different Fibre Loadings of Sugar Palm Fibre. Sains
The authors would like to express their thanks to the Malaysiana, 47(4), 699-705.
Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM), for providing research grant 13. Rajan V. P., & Curtin, W. A. (2015). Rational Design of
(GP-IPB), project number GP-IPB/2014/9441502 and excellent Fiber-Reinforced Hybrid Composites: A Global Load
facilities. Thanks also to the Faculty of Applied Sciences (FSG), Sharing Analysis. Composites Science and Technology ,
117, 199-207.
Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) Shah Alam for excellent
14. Saba, N., Tahir, P. M., & Jaw aid, M. (2014). A Review on
facilities and cooperation.
the Potentiality of Nanofiller/Natural Fiber Filled Polymer
Hybrid Composites. Polymers, 6, 2247-2273.
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