The Effect of Filler Content on the Tensile Behavior of Polypropylene/Cotton Fiber and poly(vinyl chloride)/Cotton Fiber Composites

Abstract

This paper investigates the effect of filler content on the mechanical properties of cottonfiber (CF) on the CF/PP and CF/PVC composites under quasi-static loading. For this purpose,experimental tensile tests were carried out on dog-bone specimens, cut out from hot and coldpress molded square plates of different fiber weight contents. The results obtained show that thefiller content appears to have a strong influence on mechanical energy absorption, and failurecharacteristics. It was also found that the stiffness for both sets of material increases with theaddition of filler. On the other hand, the ductility for both sets of the material increases with theaddition of filler. The microscopic morphology study indicates that CF/PP possesses a glossysurface appearance compared to CF/PVC, which possesses a porous surface. Micro-scale damagecharacteristics from tensile tests indicate that material experienced shear failure, matrix cracking,fiber breakage, fiber fracture, and fiber pullout. The phenomenon of matrix crazing experienced byCF/PP composites was also observed.