Preparation and Characterization of Polymer Matrix Composite Using Natural Fiber Lantana-Camara
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PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF POLYMER MATRIX COMPOSITE USING NATURAL FIBER LANTANA-CAMARA A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENT FOR THE DEGREE OF Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering By Chitta Ranjan Deo Department of Mechanical Engineering National Institute of Technology Rourkela -769 008 (India) June-2010 PREPARATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF POLYMER MATRIX COMPOSITE USING NATURAL FIBER LANTANA-CAMARA A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTSFOR THE DEGREE OF Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering Submitted to National Institute of Technology, Rourkela (Deemed University) By Chitta Ranjan Deo Under the supervision of Dr. Samir Kumar Acharya Department of Mechanical Engineering National Institute of Technology Rourkela -769 008 (India) June-2010 Dedicated to My Parents Late Purushottam Deo & Late Adaramani Deo National Institute of Technology Rourkela-769008 (Orissa), INDIA CERTIFICATE This is to certify that the thesis entitled “Preparation and Characterization of Polymer Matrix Composite Using Natural Fiber Lantana-Camara” submitted to the National Institute of Technology, Rourkela ( Deemed University ) by Chitta Ranjan Deo, Roll No. 507-ME-009 for the award of the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Mechanical Engineering is a record of bonafide research work carried out by him under my supervision and guidance. The results presented in this thesis has not been, to the best of my knowledge, submitted to any other University or Institute for the award of any degree or diploma. The thesis, in my opinion, has reached the standards fulfilling the requirement for the award of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in accordance with regulations of the Institute. Date: - -June-2010 (Dr. S. K. Acharya) Associate Professor Mechanical Engineering Department i ACKNOWLEDGEMENT It is a great pleasure to express my gratitude and indebtedness to my supervisor Dr. S. K. Acharya for his guidance, encouragement, moral support and affection through the course of my work. I am also grateful to Prof. Sunil Kumar Sarangi, Director, NIT, Rourkela who took keen interest in the work. My special thanks to Prof. R. K. Sahoo, Head of Mechanical Engineering Department and QIP coordinator, Prof. Akrur Behera and all staff members of the department for their timely help in completion of this work. Besides my advisors, I would like to thank Mr. Rajesh Pattanaik, Mr. Samir Pradhan & Mr. Uday Kumar Sahoo Metallurgical & Materials Engineering Department for helping me to complete the experimental work. I am also thankful to all my lab mates Mrs Punyapriya Mishra, Mr. S. K. Mehar and Mr. G. Raghavendra for their valuable support and maintaining a nice research environment in the laboratory. This work is also the outcome of the blessing guidance and support of my uncle Mr. B. K. Deo & elder sister Mrs. Basanti Bala. This work could have been a distant dream if I did not get the moral encouragement and help from my wife, Reena. She equally shared my success and failures with me. My son Swadhin missed me a lot and sacrificed many of his pleasant dreams for me. This thesis is the outcome of the sincere prayers and dedicated support of my family. Finally, I wish to acknowledge the financial support given to me by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India and the authorities of SIET, Dhenkanal, for granting three years study leave to carry out this research work at NIT Rourkela. Date: - -June-2010 (Chitta Ranjan Deo) ii ABSTRACT Environmental awareness today motivates the researchers, worldwide on the studies of natural fiber reinforced polymer composite and cost effective option to synthetic fiber reinforced composites. The availability of natural fibers and ease of manufacturing have tempted researchers to try locally available inexpensive fibers and to study their feasibility of reinforcement purposes and to what extent they satisfy the required specifications of good reinforced polymer composite for different applications. With low cost and high specific mechanical properties, natural fiber represents a good renewable and biodegradable alternative to the most common synthetic reinforcement, i.e. glass fiber. Despite the interest and environmental appeal of natural fibers, there use is limited to non-bearing applications, due to their lower strength compared with synthetic fiber reinforced polymer composite. The stiffness and strength shortcomings of biocomposites can be overcome by structural configurations and better arrangement in a sense of placing the fibers in specific locations for highest strength performance. Accordingly extensive studies on preparation and properties of polymer matrix composite (PMC) replacing the synthetic fiber with natural fiber like Jute, Sisal, Pineapple, Bamboo, Kenaf and Bagasse were carried out. These plant fibers have many advantages over glass fiber or carbon fiber like renewable, environmental friendly, low cost, lightweight and high specific mechanical performance. There are many potential natural resources, which India has in abundance. Most of it comes from the forest and agriculture. Lantana-Camara, locally called ‘Putus’ is one such natural resource whose potential as fiber reinforcement in polymer composite has not been explored till date. Lantana-Camara was introduced in India in 1809 as an ornamental plant. Since then it has spread all over the country. This weed at present is posing serious problems in plantation forestry at various locations. It chokes all other vegetation and becomes the dominant species. Complete eradication of Lantana-Camara from every area is a very-very difficult task. The various measures to control this weed have almost failed or are not cost effective, therefore none of them have become popular. Some of the use of Lantana- Camara is to make cheap furniture, utility articles, mosquito repellent and as medicine for various cures particularly for skin related diseases. On the other hand the plant is an iii invasive weed and is almost treated like bamboo in some part of India. Stems of larger Lantana-Camara are also thin and the wood is very tough and durable. Against this back ground the present research work has been undertaken with an objective to explore the use of natural fiber Lantana-Camara, as a reinforcement material in epoxy base. The work presented in this dissertation involves investigation of two distinct problems of natural fiber composites: i. A study of favourable mechanical properties of Lantana-Camara fiber in thermosetting matrix composite. ii. An experimental investigation of tribological potential of Lantana-Camara fiber reinforced composite. To study the mechanical properties of the composite, different volume fraction of fiber have been taken. These fibers were randomly distributed in the matrix. Usual hand- lay-up technique has been adopted for manufacturing the composite. To find out the critical fiber length Single fiber Pull-out test has been carried out. To have a good compatibility between the fiber and matrix, chemical modification of fibers such as Acetone, Alkali and Benzoyl-Chloride treatments has been carried out. It was found that benzoyl-chloride treated fiber composite exhibits favourable strength and stiffness in comparison to other treatments. Moisture absorption behaviour of both treated and untreated fiber composite was also carried out. The moisture sorption kinetics of the composite has also been studied. The study confirms that the Fickian’s diffusion can be used to adequately describe the moisture absorption in the composite. For studying the tribo-potential of Lantana-Camara fiber, different wear tests like abrasive wear test (multi-pass condition) on Pin-on-Disc wear testing machine, two body abrasion wear test (Single pass condition) by Two-body abrasion wear tester and Solid particle erosion behaviour by Air jet erosion test rig, have been carried out. All these tests have been carried out as per ASTM standard. The abrasive wear test results shows that the wear rate of pure epoxy reduces significantly with the addition of LCF up to 40 vol%. The wear anisotropy of the composite studied with Two-body abrasion tester shows wear iv characteristics follow the following the trends: WNO < WAPO <WPO. The solid particle erosion test clearly indicates that the composite behaviour is semi-ductile in nature. Two different mathematical models have been developed to predict the abrasive wear and erosive wear of Lantana-Camara fiber reinforced epoxy composite separately under various testing conditions by using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The full factorial design experimentation has been intended to model the abrasive and erosive wear response. These two different second order regression equations for abrasive wear rate (Δw) and erosion rate (ER) have been evaluated after implementation of Analysis of variance (ANOVA) at 95% confidence level. To have an assessment of pure error and model fitting error, some of the experimental trials are replicated in both the cases and the adequacy of the models is also investigated by the examination of residuals. The mathematical models which are developed to predict the abrasive and erosive wear characteristics has been found to be statistically valid and sound within the range of the factors. There are other fabrication techniques available like injection moulding, compression moulding and extrusion, where the volume fraction of reinforcement can be increased. In addition there are other chemical methods by which the fiber surface