Effect of sisal fiber loading on mechanical, morphological and thermal properties of extruded polypropylene composites

This work presents a systematic approach to evaluate and study the effect of fiber loading on the mechanical (tensile, flexural, impact and hardness) and morphological (SEM) properties of short sisal fiber reinforced polypropylene polymer-based composites. Short sisal fibers of 3 mm length are incorporated into Polypropylene (PP) in three different fiber loading condition (10, 20 and 30). Composites are fabricated through extrusion followed by injection moulding process. Results are compared with neat PP. Mechanical characterizations are done as per ASTM recommendation and average of five is reported. Experiments show that, at higher fiber loading condition (30%), enhanced mechanical properties are recorded. Fractography is done of the tested specimen through electron microscopy. Images reveal that, fiber entanglement enriches the mechanical interlocking and polymer anchoring inside the composite system. In addition, the elastic behaviors of the produced composites are studied using Representative Volume Element (RVE) method. A good dealing between the models developed with the experimental values is observed.