Abstract—The present paper investigates the effect of fibre content and alkali treatment on tensile, flexural and impact properties of unidirectional Sisal fibre natural-fibre-reinforced epoxy composites which are partially biodegradable. The reinforcement sisal fibre fibre was collected from the foliage of locally available sisal bushes through the process of water retting and mechanical extraction. Commonly encountered problem between fibre and matrix is poor adhesion in naturalfibre- reinforced composites. To overcome this problem, specific treatments (physical and chemical) were suggested for surface modification of fibres by investigators. Alkali treatment is one of the simple and effective surface modification technique which is commonly used in natural fibre composites. In the present study both untreated and alkali-treated fibres were used as reinforcement in sisal epoxy composites and the tensile, flexural and impact properties were determined at different fibre contents. The alkali treatment is found to be effective in improving the tensile and flexural properties while the impact strength decreased.

Index Terms—Sisal fibre, Epoxy resin, Alkali treatment, Mechanical properties

Cite: S Somashekar and G C Shanthakumar, "Effect of Alkali Treatment on Mechanical Properties of Sisal-Reinforced Epoxy Polymer Matrix Composite," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering and Robotics Research, Vol.3, No.4, pp. 441-450, October 2014.