EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF WOVEN GLASS SISAL FIBRE COMPOSITES

M. Balachandar1, R.Ajay2, N.S.Ajay Kumar

1. Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sree Sastha Institute of Engineering and Technology, Chennai.
2. Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sree Sastha Institute of Engineering and Technology, Chennai.
3. Student, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sree Sastha Institute of Engineering and Technology, Chennai.

Abstract

The imagination of designers and decorators is developing broadly to satisfy the needs of the
latest world scenario. Natural and artificial fibres play a vital role in the world. In that natural
fibres are recyclable, lesser cost and broadly available. Comparisons studies were made with
natural and artificial fibre and then concluded sisal fibre with e-glass fibre are good by
experimentally. Experimental analysis of woven glass made by combination of sisal fibre and
e-glass fibre and these materials are fabricated and various manual testing are conducted for
various orientations and angles and shapes of those fibre materials. The materials are fabricated
in various manner and orientations and tests are conducted. The orientation is 0 o, 45o and 90o
sisal fibre are combined with e-glass fibre and made into a shape of a plate and then tensile
test, flexural test and impact test are conducted and graphs are plotted.
Keywords: Woven glass, Sisal fibre, E-glass fibre, Testings
1. INTRODUCTION

Composite materials are materials in which

two or more different materials are
combined together. Composite is defined as
the sum of matrix and reinforcement
matrix, is a thermo set property and
includes vinyl ester, epoxy and polyester.
Reinforcement is the fibre like glass,
aramid, carbon and graphite.
COMPOSITE
=
REINFORCEMENT

MATRIX

The composite materials are used in

widespread
application
in
defense
industries, automobile industries, aerospace
and marine. Since composite materials are
having low fabrication cost, good
mechanical properties been researches on
the use of natural fibres as reinforcements
in composites for various applications. The
majority of the research has been directed
towards sisal, jute, hemp and pineapple.
Papers have reviewed the developments in
these field and various interesting
applications were illustrated, ease of
handing, thermal insulation they are inplane performance.
2. SISAL FIBRE

Figure 1. Natural sisal fibre

In many part of world apart from

agricultural uses, different part of plant and
fruits of many crops have been found to be
visible source of raw material for industrial
purpose. The use of natural fibres in
polymer matrices is highly beneficial
because the strength and toughness of the
resulting composites are greater than those
of un-reinforced plastics. Moreover,

cellulose-based natural fibre light in weight

cheap, abundant, renewable and biodegradable compare to synthetic fibres such
as nylon, glass and carbon which are
expensive and non-renewable.

Figure 3. Internal structure of sisal

leaves

Figure 2. Natural sisal leaves

Recently cellulosic products and wastes
such as wood flour, wood chips and pulp
have been used as fillers in polymer,
primarily for cost effectiveness and high
volume application. Several researches
have studied the use of lingo cellulose
natural fibres like sisal, coir, bamboo and
grass fibres like elephant grass as
reinforcing agents in thermosetting and
thermo plastic polymers. Over the pest
decade, cellulose fillers of fibrous nature
have been of great importance, because the
composites made from these fibre exhibit
improved mechanical properties compared
to those containing non-fibrous fillers. An
annual crop such as sugarcane bag as,
wheat straw and rice straw has also been
used as fibrous reinforcement in
composites. The performance of these
fibres depends on their cellulose content.

3. EXTRACTION OF SISAL FIBRE

Fibre is extracted by a process known
as decortications, where leaves are crushed
and beaten by a rotating wheel set with
blunt knives, so that only fibres remain.
The leaves are transported to a central
decortications plant, where water is used to
wash away the waste parts of the leaf. The
fibre is then dried, brushed and baled for
export. Proper drying is important as fibre
quality depends largely on moisture
content. Artificial drying has been found to
result in generally better grades of fibre
than sun drying, but is not feasible in the
developing countries where sisal is
produced. Fibre is subsequently cleaned by
brushing. Dry fibres are machine combed
and sorted into various grades, largely on
the basis of the previous in-field separation
of leaves into size groups.

Figure 4. Extraction of sisal leaves

3. METHODOLOGY OF SISAL FIBRE

MAT PREPARATION
The specimens are prepared in accordance
with ASTM standards. Before starting the
tests, the steps required for the preparation
of sisal fibre reinforced epoxy composites
are as follows:
Step 1: Extracting the natural continuous
sisal fibre.
Step 2: Preparing the sisal fibre mat as per
requirement (Orientation).
Step 3: Preparing the woven glass fibre and
mat.
Step 4: Mould preparation.
Step 5: Mixing the Epoxy and Hardener in
the ratio of 10:1.
Step 6: Preparation of the specimen as per
ASTM standard.
Step 7: Testing Tensile, Flexural and
Impact
Step 8: Results and Analysis.

constant), R-glass (alumino silicate glass

without Magnesium oxide and Calcium
oxide with high mechanical requirements),
and S-glass (alumino silicate glass without
Calcium oxide but with high Magnesium
oxide content with high tensile strength).
5. VARIOUS TEST CONDUCTED
Tensile test
Flexural test
Impact test
5.1 TENSILE TEST PROCEDURE

4. PREPARATION OF THE WOVEN

GLASS FIBRE MAT
Glass fibre is formed when thin strands
of silica-based or other formulation glass
are extruded into many fibres with small
diameters suitable for textile processing.
The technique of heating and drawing glass
into fine fibres has been known for
millennia. the use of these fibres for textile
applications is more in recent trends. Until
this time all glass fibre had been
manufactured as staple (a term used to
describe clusters of short lengths of fibre).
The types of glass fibre most commonly
used are mainly E-glass (aluminoborosilicate glass with less than 1% w/w
alkali oxides, mainly used for glassreinforced plastics), but also A-glass
(alkali-lime glass with little or no boron
oxide), E-CR-glass (alumino-lime silicate
with less than 1% w/w alkali oxides, has
high acid resistance), C-glass (alkali-lime
glass with high boron oxide content, used
for example for glass staple fibres), D-glass
(borosilicate glass with high dielectric

Figure 5.1. Tinius olsen UTM

Tensile Test Procedure
The machine used for tensile test is
INSTRON Universal Testing machine.
Before starting the tensile test, the initial
length, width and height of specimen are
measured.
The specimen must fix at top and bottom
jaws of TINIUS OLSEN UTM to ensure
that the failure will happen at the middle of
the specimen.

No of

SPECIMEN ORIENTATIONS

SPECIMEN A ( 0 )
Tests
1
2
3

Ultimate
strength
(MPa)
55.4123
48.6937
52.2286

Youngs
modulus
(MPa)
4839.37
4555.27
4539.47

Elongati
- on (%)
3.278
2.6785
2.7455

SPECIMEN B (45 )
Ultimate
strength
(MPa)
33.3456
38.1236
39.6905

Youngs
modulus
(MPa)
3129.6
3389.95
3881.49

Elongati- on (%)
2.438
2.687
2.387

SPECIMEN C (90 )
Ultimate
strength
(MPa)
34.5835
40.4971
33.1436

Youngs
modulus
(MPa)
4344.26
4326.85
4460.73

Elongation
(%)
1.488
1.8765
1.7065

Table. 5.1. Tested values of Tensile test

Figure 5.1.1Specimen before tested

Orientation B (45)

Figure 5.1.2 Specimen after tested

5.1.1 ANALYSIS ON TENSILE TEST
RESULTS For Load vs. Displacement

Orientation C (90)
From the above analysis Tensile strength,
Youngs modulus and Elongation for the
three specimens1,2 and 3 are tabulated and
found that OrientationB (0) has high value
than the other two OrientationsA (90 ) and
C (45). It is clear that the Orientation B
(0) is comparably better than the
Orientation A (90) and Orientation C (45)
as its breaking load is higher.

Orientation A (0)
5.2 FLEXURAL TEST

SPECIMEN ORIENTATIONS
SPECIMEN A ( 0 )
No of Tests

1
2
3

SPECIMEN B (45 )

SPECIMEN C (90 )

Flexural
load
N

Flexural
strength MPa

Flexural
load N

Flexural
strength
MPa

Flexural
load N

Flexural
strength MPa

170.25554
225.87674
177.93671

114.86527
144.884
127.75146

202.67546
176.61937
180.39671

136.36964
118.86548
131.07347

151.11143
172.30566
181.38792

175.99742
129.58275
201.29053

Table. 5.2. Tested values of Tensile test

5.2.1 ANALYSIS ON FLEXURAL TEST
RESULTS For Load vs. Displacement

Orientation A (0)
Figure 5.2.1Flexural testing machine

Orientation B (45)
Figure 5.2.2Specimen before tested

Orientation C (90)
Figure 5.2.3 Specimen after tested
Flexural load and Flexural strength for the three specimens1,2 and 3 tabulated and found that
Orientation A (90) has high value than the other two Orientations B (0)and C (45 ). It is

clear that the Orientation A (90 )is comparably better than the Orientation B (0) and
Orientation C (45) as its breaking load is higher.
5.3 IMPACT TEST

SPECIMEN ORIENTATIONS
SPECIMEN A ( 0 )
No of Tests

SPECIMEN B (45 )

SPECIMEN C (90 )

Impact
Impact
Impact
Impact
Impact
Strength
Strength
Strength
Reading J
Reading J
J/m
J/m
J/m
1
1.4739
475.463
1.6335
664.044
0.8706
375.29
2
1.475
458.097
1.6439
662.894
0.8655
366.76
3
1.1027
361.548
1.5001
604.899
0.647
253.74
4
1.3811
413.527
1.7875
659.602
0.7072
260.99
5
1.1156
370.644
1.6335
664.044
0.723
283.531
Table. 5.2. Tested values of Impact test
Orientations (0, 45 , 90 )
Figure 5.3.1Flexural testing machine
6. CONCLUSION
The experimental analysis of the sisal fibre
composite was made successfully. By
replacing the conventional synthetic fibres
have overcome the advantages like light
weight and high strength. On comparing
breaking point for the three Orientations A
(90 ), B (0) and C (45) of the fibre in the
specimens, it can be clearly seen that the
Orientation B (0) has great tensile and
flexural strength than the other two and the
Orientation C (45) has great impact
strength.
In future it can be expanded by choosing
Figure 5.3.2Specimen before tested
different alkalis and different resins to
obtain better properties. By varying the
combination of natural and artificial fibres
different composite materials can be
obtained.
Impact
Reading J

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Figure 5.3.3 Specimen after tested

5.3.1 ANALYSIS ON IMPACT TEST
RESULTS For Different Orientations

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