Tensile Strength of Natural Fiber Reinforced Polyester Composite

Abstract

Nowadays, increasing awareness of replacing synthetic fiber such as glass fiber has emerged due to environmental problems and pollutions. Automotive manufacturers also seek new material especially biodegradable material to be non‐load bearing application parts. This present work discussed on the effect of silane treatment on coir fiber reinforced composites. From the results of tensile tests, fibers treated with silane have attained maximum material stiffness. However, to achieve maximum ultimate tensile strength and strain at failure performances, untreated fibers work very well through fiber bridging and internal friction between fiber and polymeric matrix. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations have coincided with these results.