Fabrication and Properties Testing of Sisal Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Composites with Random Orientation.

Due to environment and sustainability issues, this century has witnessed a global attention in green technology in the field of materials science through the development of composites. So, natural fiber reinforced composites have become important field of green composite. The main objective of this paper is to investigate the effect of sisal fiber reinforcement in epoxy composites with random orientation. Sisal fiber is abundant, low cost, degradable and good strength fiber. Sisal fiber is separated from sisal leaf using suitable techniques and those fibers surface are modified by chemical pre-treatment method (alkali treatment5%NaOH solution). Pre-treated fiber with constant length and volume is reinforced in epoxy matrix. Pure epoxy and sisal fiber reinforced epoxy composites are prepared by hand lay-up method. The prepared composites are tested as per ASTM standard. Tensile strength, compression strength and water absorption test are examined for the composite. The properties of the prepared composites are compared with pure epoxy. Experimental results show that the fiber reinforced composites showed enhanced mechanical properties compared with plain epoxy composites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]