Tensile Behavior of Nettle Fiber Composites Exposed to Various Environments

Abstract

Recently, natural fiber reinforced biocomposites have received widespread attention due to their application in automotive, construction, industrial, and other commercial markets. Their lightweight characteristics have direct positive impact on the fuel economy in automotive applications. The mechanical behavior of natural fiber based composites are affected by the different environmental conditions. Observing the application spectrum, there is an imminent need to investigate the effect of different operating environments on mechanical behavior of biocomposites. The objective of the present research endeavor is to characterize the tensile behavior of the nettle fiber reinforced polypropylene (PP) composites when exposed to river water, diesel oil, freezing conditions, sunlight (UV), and soil for different exposure times (64–512 h). The experimental results show that the tensile strength of the developed biocomposite is affected by varying magnitudes when subjected to selected conditions for different exposure times.