Development of Mathematical Models and Estimation for the Mechanical Properties of Organic Fiber Reinforced Polyester Composites

Organic fiber from animal waste was used for the development of environmentally friendly animal fiber based polyester composites using cow hair. The cow hair fibers were cut into 10 mm lengths to produce the needed short fiber for random dispersion in the matrix. Before use, some of the fibers were treated with sodium hydroxide for fiber surface modification while some were left as untreated. Composites were developed using predetermined proportions of the fibers in an open mould production process. Samples were formed into tensile and flexural shape in their respective moulds and were stripped off the moulds after curing while further curing was ensured for 27 days before testing. Tensile and flexural properties of the cow hair fiber reinforced polyester composites were evaluated from which it was discovered that the untreated fiber reinforced composites possess better enhancement of mechanical properties compared to the treated fiber reinforced composites and the unreinforced polyester material. Mathematical models for the tensile and flexural properties were developed using statistical packages and estimation using developed software. The developed models revealed high degree of correlation between the experimental values and the predicted values. This denotes that the models can be used to predict the mechanical properties of cow hair reinforced polyester composites for various reinforcement contents.