Green Global
Foundation   Journal
...an emerging window for scientific research and publication across the globe

DEVELOPMENT OF BIODEGRADABLE COMPOSITE MATERIALS BY USING JUTE FIBRE REINFORCEMENT (Pages : 30 - 35)

Jute reinforced PLA (polylactic acid) fibre composites have been fabricated by using woven jute fabrics from Bangladesh. The area density of the fabrics was 158.38 g/m2 and the thickness was o.86 mm. The staple length and linear density of the PLA fibres were 37.6 mm and 2.13 dtex respectively. Initially, a nonwoven fabric was produced by using jute fabric as the base fabric and laying a web of PLA fibres on it by using an Automatex carding and cross-lapping machine. The nonwoven cross-laid web was then needled into the jute woven fabric on the needle punching machine. The nonwoven base fabrics were cut into 17 x 17 cm sizes. Eight layers of the nonwoven base fabric were combined together to form a composite by using a hot press machine at 160? and 25 kg/cm2 pressure for 2.5 minutes. The fabric layers were arranged at different angles to make the fabricated composite isotropic. The 3-point bending tests, tensile tests, impact tests and ageing tests were carried out on the finished composites by following the standard test methods and equipment. In the 3-point bending test, the applied load was 20N and the average deflection was 2.02 mm. In the tensile testing, the maximum average load was 3500N for a cross-sectional area of 20 mm x 2.88 mm and the tensile strength was 60.77 MPa. In the impact test, the allowable impact load was 2400N and the energy was 16.37 joules. The ageing of the composites was carried out by using different ageing media (water, salt water, acidic and alkaline solutions) and the biodegradability aspects of the finished composites were investigated.Download