Impact behaviour of woven coir-epoxy composite: effects of woven density and woven fabric treatment

摘要

Several approaches have been implemented to enhance the impact performance of natural fibre-reinforced compositestructures. The control of reinforcement structure and fibre modification through treatment are among the approaches.The objective of this study was to evaluate the impact behaviour of woven coir-epoxy composite as a function of fabricdensity and fabric modification using alkalisation treatment. Samples were subjected to low-velocity impact penetrationtests and image analysis technique was used to measure the area and perimeter of the damaged samples under impact.A multi-level full factorial design was implemented in this study as a systematic and efficient way to distinguish theinteractions of more than one factor. Two levels of woven density (Type 1 and Type 2) were investigated and four levelsof treatment percentage (0%, 6%, 9% and 12%) were examined. Moreover, analysis of variance (ANOVA) was employedto determine the significant factors that predominantly influence the impact behaviour of woven composites. It was foundthat the differences in woven density and woven treatment significantly affect the maximum impact load and deflection ofwoven coir-epoxy composites. Impact energy absorption, however, was only affected by woven treatment. Factorinteractions were also apparent for maximum impact load, initiation energy and deflection. The results showed thatwoven reinforcement with denser structure was less stiff in nature. The deformability of the composites was also foundto reduce with the increase of treatment percentage. Furthermore, poor damage resistance was observed in denserwoven structure.