Fabrication and characterization of surface modified short sisal fibre reinforced polyester composites: an experimental investigation

Abstract Natural fibre like sisal fibre has excellent reinforcing potential mainly because of its low extraction cost, easy availability, and high level of recycling. The present experimental study reveals that the addition of surface-modified sisal fibres in the polyester reluctantly raises the voids and water uptake rate, but is limited to 2.96% and 5.7%, respectively, for maximum fibre content. While studying the tensile properties, for a maximum loading of 10 wt%, the increment of around 37% in tensile strength, 15% in tensile modulus and 15% in percentage elongation is observed. The flexural strength and modulus also improve with fibre loading, showing an increment of around 31% and 23% respectively. The compressive strength is increased by around 21%, whereas a marginal increment of 9% is observed in the value of hardness. During the wear test, it is observed that the factor combination of the fibre content of 10 wt%, applied load 30 N, a distance of sliding of 2000 m and a velocity of sliding of 5 m s −1 results in the lowest mass loss. A confirmatory test was also performed to determine the variation between the predicted and experimental values. The steady-state study showed that the composite having 10 wt% of sisal fibre shows the lowest wear. Based on the obtained properties, the presently fabricated composites can find their potential application in interior panels of automobiles and boats, roofing sheets, wall panels, partition boards, and ceiling panels in construction, bicycle frames, surfboards and skateboards in sports and replacement of traditional plastic and wooden packaging in packaging industries.