Title: Fibre loading effects on dynamic mechanical properties of compression moulded luffa fibre polyester composites

Authors: G. Kalusuraman; I. Siva; J.T. Winowlin Jappes; Xiao-Zhi Gao; Sandro Campos Amico

Addresses: Centre for Composite Materials, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kalasalingam University, Anand Nagar/TN, India ' Centre for Composite Materials, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kalasalingam University, Anand Nagar/TN, India ' Centre for Composite Materials, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kalasalingam University, Anand Nagar/TN, India ' Department of Electrical Engineering and Automation, Aalto University School of Electrical Engineering, Otaniementie/Aalto, Finland ' Laboratory of Polymeric Materials, School of Engineering, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Aleger/RS, Brazil

Abstract: In this work, dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) of untreated luffa fibre composites has been carried out. Composites are produced using luffa fibre mat and polyester resin. Compression moulding is done at 5MPa pressure from 30 to 50% for varying fibre loading. Temperature ramped dynamic mechanical analysis is done to understand the fibre loading effects on dynamic properties. Results show, that increase in fibre loading significantly increase the storage modulus of the composites without any change in mechanical characteristics. Cole-Cole plot is drawn to understand the elastic-plastic behaviours and results reveal that, the more fibre is mixed content the more the elastic behaviour is found.

Keywords: luffa fibre; polyester composite; fibre loading; DMA.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAET.2018.088836

International Journal of Computer Aided Engineering and Technology, 2018 Vol.10 No.1/2, pp.157 - 165

Received: 09 Jan 2016
Accepted: 15 Mar 2016

Published online: 20 Dec 2017 *

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