Investigation of Mechanical Properties for Reinforced Polyester Composites with Palm Fronds

Abstract

Natural fibers have become essential elements to produce composites, which have the renewability, sustainability, low cost and less health hazardous. Natural wastes improved the physical and mechanical properties of polyester based composites. Reinforced polyester composites with natural fibers are spread widely in recent decades as an alternative to synthetics. This paper deals with effectiveness of palm fronds when they were added to a polyester. Percentage of palm fibers with respect to polyester is considered through present work. A Pin-on-disc tribometer has been used in experimental work under external forces, and the correlations of coefficient of friction have been used to make analysis of the experimental results. Ibertest universal testing machine was used to measure the tensile strength at a crosshead speed of 8 mm/min. The experimental analysis shows the improvement of properties of the used reinforced polyester, where, the results show that the highest values of coefficient of friction are 1.16667 for 5 N load and the lowest value is 0.55 for 9 N load. And the change for load 11 N is not significant. And also, 7.01 MPa is the highest value for tensile strength with the lowest value of modulus of rigidity 5.84 when the palm frond content is 3% and the lowest value of tensile test is 4.81 MPa with the highest value of modulus of rigidity 11.9 when 21% content.