Modified Weibull analysis on banana fiber strength prediction

Abstract

Nowadays, the world is facing a crisis in regards to renewable resources and rising\ carbon footprint. In the microscopic scale of engineering, this is where natural fibers come into play. Natural fibers comprise of considerable advantages that include being lightweight, inexpensive and renewable in comparison to their synthetic counterparts. The fibers are being used as reinforcement in composite matrices, including hybrid composites. The main issue with natural fibers is the high disparity of its mechanical properties, especially tensile strength. In this study, Weibull statistical analysis is utilised in order to quantify the variation of the probabilistic strength of banana fibers. Single fiber tensile test was performed after the fiber diameters were measured at 1mm intervals along its length. The modified Weibull distribution with conical frustum model can predict the gauge length effect more accurately than the conventional Weibull distribution with cylindrical model.