International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MECHANICAL ENGINEERING 6340(Print), ISSN

N 0976 6359(Online) Volume 4, Issue 2, March - April (2013) IAEME

AND TECHNOLOGY (IJMET)

ISSN 0976 6340 (Print) ISSN 0976 6359 (Online) Volume 4, Issue 2, March - April (2013), pp. 453-460 IAEME: www.iaeme.com/ijmet.asp Journal Impact Factor (2013): 5.7731 (Calculated by GISI) www.jifactor.com

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EVALUATION ON FRACTURE MECHANICS OF MODE II TREATED FIBER/PLLA BASED ON REAL SIZE MODEL COMPOSITE C.V. Sia1, Y. Nakai2, H. Tanaka3, D.Shiozawa4
1,2,3,4

Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kobe University, Kobe, Hyogo, Japan

ABSTRACT Interfacial fracture toughness between treated fiber and matrix was investigated by using model composite method. Oil palm fibers (OPF) were pretreated with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) for 48 hours before the specimen fabrication process. Three oil palm fibers (OPF) from 204m to 295m were aligned in parallel and bonded by poly (L-latic acid) (PLLA). A significant increase in interfacial fracture toughness was found for the model composite due to the increment of the resin length which bonded on the OPF. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations were carried out to analyze the morphology of the model composite. Keywords: Fracture Toughness, Oil Palm Fiber, PLLA, Model Composite 1. INTRODUCTION Renewal of interest in the research of fibers derived from natural sustainable sources as potential reinforcement for high performance composites has been growing in recent years. The good strengths and modulus, low density, economical viability and biodegradability of the natural fibers over traditional fibers make them attractive candidate for the reinforcement. Commercially, available nature fibers such as hemp, jute, oil palm, bamboo, sisal, flax, etc. are being explored in many countries [1].

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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 6340(Print), ISSN 0976 6359(Online) Volume 4, Issue 2, March - April (2013) IAEME

Plant-based fibers mainly consist of cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin which are major components of the plant cell wall [2].Since the adhesive bonding between fiber and matrix are mainly depend on the surface roughness of the fiber, increasing the surface roughness us the key factor to improve the adhesive bonding. Alkali treatment of the natural fibers is one of the chemical treatments which can remove the impurities of the fibers and increase the surface roughness of the fiber [3-6]. Recent evaluation crack propagation behavior of fiber reinforced plastics (FRP) was based on meso-mechanical analysis where the crack propagation in FRP was evaluated from fracture process like matrix fracture and fiber/matrix interfacial cracking [7-9]. The crack propagation behavior in FRP is strongly influenced by the interfacial bonding between fiber and matrix[10, 11]. The objective of the present study is to evaluate Mode II interfacial fracture toughness between treated oil palm fiber and PLLA composite by using the model composite method. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) was utilized to investigate the morphology of the model composite. 2. EXPERIMENT PROCEDURE 2.1 Materials Oil palm fibers were purchased from Ecofibre Technology Shn.Bhd, Malaysia. These untreated fibers have a characteristic were approximately 150-550m diameter and 40150mm in length. PLLA fibers with diameter of 0.2mm were purchased from Unitika Ltd, Japan and Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) was purchased in Hyogo, Japan. 2.2 Surface Treatment Oil palm fibers were cut to approximate 50mm of length and kept in oven at21C 1C for 24 hours for conditioning which according to ASTM D1776-04 [12]. The oil palm fibers were then soaked in 1.0M (mol/liter) alkali solution for 48 hours. The alkali treated fibers were then washed and rinsed with distilled water for several times until the final pH was maintained at 7.0. After that, the fibers were dried at room temperature for 48 hours. 2.3 Model Composite Specimen Three OPFs were aligned in parallel on a paper tab with a small tension force applied on the fibers to avoid loosening of the fibers. Four PLLA fibers were placed between the 3 vertical fibers as spacer to maintain the distance between OPFs. Both end points of OPFs were glued by using epoxy resin adhesive. Small amount of PLLA was melted and mounted at the edge of a sharp soldering tip and then placed the melted PLLA at mid-point in between 2 OPFs. Schematic and SEM of the specimen were shown in Fig. 1 and 2 respectively. The matrix length of the test specimens was from230 to 5700m and the angle of the fibers, 2 which shown in Fig.1(b) for bonding section was from 60 to 180 degrees.

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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 6340(Print), ISSN 0976 6359(Online) Volume 4, Issue 2, March - April (2013) IAEME

(a) (b) Fig.1 Schematics of model composite specimen. (a) Top view, (b) Cross-section view

Fig.2 SEM image of the model composite 2.4 Mode II Interfacial Test Method Uniaxial tensile strength, tensile modulus and elongation at break of the oil palm fibers were carried out using Tohei MT201 tensile test machine. A gauge length of 20mm was employed with a crosshead speed of 9mm/min and 50N load. Fig.3 shows the schematic of double shear specimen model. By simplifying the composite model into section (a), (b) and (c), the strain energy of the model composite can be obtaind as below. 1

whereUa, Ub and Ucare the strain energy of the section (a), (b) and (c). The equation of Ua, Ub and Ucare stated below. 2 2 2 2

whereE and D are the tensile modulus and diameter of oil palm fiber respectively, P is the applied force, L, m and n are the length of the section in Fig.3.
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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 6340(Print), ISSN 0976 6359(Online) Volume 4, Issue 2, March - April (2013) IAEME The energy release rate at crack tip A and B are given by the following equation. 1 d 1 d d 2 d 2 d d 6 1 d 1 d d 2 2 d 2 d d 3 3 4

Since the value of GB is larger than GA, the crack must start propagate from the point B (Fig. 3).

Fig.3 Schematic of double shear specimen model. 3. RESULT AND DISCUSSION The SEM the fiber before and after alkali treatment is exhibited in Fig. 5(a) and (b). NaOH treatment leads to the irreversible mercerization which will improve the fiber surface adhesive characteristics by removing natural and artificial impurities, thereby producing rough surface topography (Fig. 5(b)). Same observationhas been reported in Sreekala et al. [6] and Moshiul et al.[13]s research.

(a) (b) Fig.4 SEM micrographs of the surface of oil palm fiber. (a) Untreated OPF, (b) Treated OPF (24h, 1.0M NaOH).
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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 6340(Print), ISSN 0976 6359(Online) Volume 4, Issue 2, March - April (2013) IAEME

Fig. 5(a), (b), (c) and (d)illustrates the relationship between interfacial fracture toughness and diameter of fibers, angle of bonding interface of treated fibers/PLLA, spacing between treated fibers and matrix length respectively. The highest value of the interfacial fracture toughness obtained from the double shear test is 108.6J/m2, and the minimum value of the interfacial fracture toughness is 14.7J/m2. While the average interfacial fracture toughness is 61.2J/m2. The scatter plots in Fig. 5(a), (b) and (c) clearly shows that interfacial fracture toughness does not depend on the fiber diameters, angle of bonding interface and spacing between fibers. However, interfacial fracture toughness of the composite model does depend on the matrix length (Fig. 5(d)).

120 Fraacture Toughness, G (J/m2) Fraacture Toughness, G (J/m2) 100 80 60 40 20 0 200 220 240 260 280 Fiber Diameter (m) 300

120 100 80 60 40 20 0 90 105 120 135 150 165 Angle of bonding interface, 2 () 180

(a)

(b)

120 Fraacture Toughness, G (J/m2) 100 80 60 40 20 0 0 20 40 60 80 100 Spacing between fibers, t (m) Fracture Toughness, G (J/m2)

120 100 80 60 40 20 0 0 1 2 3 4 5 Matrix Length, L (mm) 6

(c)

(d)

Fig. 5 Variations of interfacial fracture toughness as a function of (a) diameter of OPF, (b) angle of bonding interface of OPF/PLLA, (c) spacing between OPFs and (d) matrix length fordouble shear specimen model.

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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 6340(Print), ISSN 0976 6359(Online) Volume 4, Issue 2, March - April (2013) IAEME

As can be seen in Fig. 5(d), interfacial fracture toughness of the composite model was found to be increased with the increase of matrix length. The maximum fracture toughness was obtained when matrix length is about 2.3mm. At this point, the matrix length and process zone reach the optimum state where the maximum plastic deformation occurred. After that, the interfacial fracture toughness decreased and observed to beconstantwhen L > 3.0mm where the mean value of the interfacial fracture toughness is 70.9J/m2. The process zone was independent of the matrix length when L > 3.0mm.Other studies reveal that the interlaminar fracture toughnesswasaffectedby bond thickness of the composites. From the data analysis, they found the similarscatter plots (Fig. 6)where the fracture toughness will keep constant after bond thickness is larger than the process zone [14, 15].

Fig. 6 Relationship between fracture toughness and bond thickness Fig.7 shows the SEM of the fracture surface at the initial crack tip of the treated fiber/PLLA model. The matrix was more found on the surface of the outer fiber (Fig. 7(b)). It means that the crack propagated along the interface between center fiber and matrix.

(a)

(b)

Fig. 7 Fracture surface of the specimen. (a) Center fiber (b) Outer fiber.
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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 6340(Print), ISSN 0976 6359(Online) Volume 4, Issue 2, March - April (2013) IAEME

4. CONCLUSION A new model composite method is introduced for Mode II test, which evaluate the interfacial fracture mechanics of treated fibers/PLLA composite. In this research, the interfacial fracture toughness of the composite model only affected by matrix length. However,the value of interfacial fracture toughness is independent and constant after the matrix length is more than 3.0mm. REFERENCES [1] [2] [3] A.K. Mohanty, M. Misra. L.T. Drzal, Natural fibers, biopolymers and biocomposite (BocaRaton, FL: CRC Press, 2005). S. Shinoj, R.Visvanathan, S. Panigrahi, M. Kochubabu. Oil palm fiber (OPF) and its composite: A review. Industrial Crops and Products, Vol. 33, 2011, 7-22. A. Roy, S. Chakraborty, S.P. Kundu, R.K. Basak, S.B. Majumder, B Adhikari, Improvement in mechanical properties of jute fibers through mild alkali treatment as demonstrated by utilization of the Weibull distribution model, Bioresource Technology Vol. 107, 2012, 222-228. J. Gassan, A.K. Bledzki Alkali treatment of jute fibres: relationship between structure and mechanical properties, Journal of Applied Polymer Science, Vol. 71, 1999, 623 629. H. Gu, Tensile behaviours of the coir fibre and related composites after NaOH treatment, Materials and Design, Vol. 30, 2009, 39313934. M.S Sreekala, M.G Kumaran, R. Joseph, S. Thomas. Stress-relaxation behaviour in composites based on short oil-palm fibres and phenol formaldehyde resin. Composites Science and Technology,Vol. 61(9), 2001, 11751188. J.H. Crews, K.N.Shivakumar, I.S.Raju, A fibre-resin micromechanics analysis of the delamination front in a double cantilever beam specimen, PhaseInteraction in Composite Materials, 1992, 396-405. F. Dubois, R.Keunings, DCB testing of thermoplastic composites: Anon-linear micromacro numerical analysis, Composites Science and Technology, Vol.57(4), 1997, 437450. H. Tanaka, Y.Nakai, Three-dimensional micromechanics analysis of strain energy release rate distribution along delamination crack in FRP, Proc. 4thAsian-Australasian Conf. onComposite Materials, 2004, 439-444. M.Kotaki, M.Hojo, N. Tsujioka, H.Hamada, effect of surface treatment oninterlaminar/intralaminar crack growth behavior of CFRP laminates, Proc. 4th Japan International SAMPE Symposium, 1995, 1008-1013. M.Hojo, N.Tsujioka, M.Kotaki, H.Hamada, Z. Maekawa, S.Ochiai, Effect of interfacial strength on interlaminar and intralaminar fracture toughness of CFRPlaminates, Proc. COMP'95, 1995, 30-36. ASTM, ASTM D1776-04, Standard practice for conditioning and testing textiles, American Society for Testing and Materials, 2004, Pennsylvania, USA. A.K.M. Moshiul Alam, M.D.H beg, D.M. Reddy Prasad, M.R. Khan, M.F. Mina, Structures and performance of simultaneous ultrasound and alkali treated oil palm empty fruit bunch fiber reinforced poly(lactic acid) composites. Composites: Part A, Vol. 43, 2012, 1921-1929.
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International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Technology (IJMET), ISSN 0976 6340(Print), ISSN 0976 6359(Online) Volume 4, Issue 2, March - April (2013) IAEME

[14] F. Ozdil, L.A.Carlsson, Mode I interlaminar fracture of interleaved graphite/epoxy, Journal of Composite Materials, Vol. l6(3), 1992, 432-459 [15] H. Chai, Bond thickness effect in adhesive joints and its significance for mode I interlaminar fracture of composites, Composite Materials: Tasting and design (7th Conf.), ASTM STP 893, 1986, 209-231. [16] Ercan Serif Kaya, Takuro Katayama and Toshitaka Yamao, Seismic Characteristics of the Folded Cantilever Shear Structure, International Journal of Civil Engineering & Technology (IJCIET), Volume 4, Issue 2, 2013, pp. 58 - 79, ISSN Print: 0976 6308, ISSN Online: 0976 6316. [17] Sharad V. Kshirsagar and Dr. Lalit B. Bhuyar, Signature Analysis of Cracked Cantilever Beam, International Journal of Advanced Research in Engineering & Technology (IJARET), Volume 3, Issue 2, 2012, pp. 594 - 603, ISSN Print: 0976-6480, ISSN Online: 0976-6499. [18] Maridurai T, Shashank Rai and Shivam Sharma and Palanisamy P, Analysis of Tensile Strength and Fracture Toughness using Root Pass of Tig Welding and Subsequent Passes of Smaw and Saw of P91 Material For Boiler Application, International Journal of Mechanical Engineering & Technology (IJMET), Volume 3, Issue 2, 2012, pp. 594 - 603, ISSN Print: 0976 6340, ISSN Online: 0976 6359.

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