EFFECT OF FIBRE LENGTHS ON THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF TREATED AND UNTREATED (OPEFB) FIBRE

Fibre lengths has been noticed to have effect on the tensile strength of natural fibres (OPEFB). These observations were made among researchers in different part of the globe. In this paper, OPEFB fibre with two different lengths of 100mm and 150mm were considered both untreated and treated with two different concentrations of NaOH (10%w/v and 15%w/v) solution which was allowed for a period of 24hrs in a NaOH solution.It was found that the fibre with 15cm length gave the highest tensile strength when untreated and after treated for 24hrs in the 15%w/v of NaOH solution with the surface morphology been rougher at the same concentration. Therefore, the higher the length of OPEFB fibre, the higher the tensile strength especially when the OPEFB fibre is treated optimally with NaOH solution.Generally, increasing the length of (OPEFB) fibers leads to an increase in tensile strength, but only up to a certain point. Beyond that optimal length or optimal treatment when treatment is required, further increases in length can result in a decrease in tensile strength. This is due to a combination of factors including fiber dispersion, interfacial bonding, and porosity within the fiber