• Jawaid, Mohammad
• El-Badawy, Ayman A.
• Seyam, Abdel-Fattah M.

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>In an attempt to increase the biodiversity of natural fibers, new sources of natural fibers should be discovered. Long textile-grade date palm (DP) fibers were used in the manufacturing of 50:50 polypropylene nonwoven composite. DP fibers are considered newcomers to the natural fiber library. The main aim of this work was to benchmark different types of DP fiber composites in comparison to other commercial leaf fiber composites, namely, sisal, abaca, and banana, in addition to FlexForm automotive composites. The composites were mechanically and physically characterized in order to determine their properties. The results showed that the void content in DP composites was lower than that in sisal and abaca by 33% and 40% respectively. DP composites have tensile strength within the same range as sisal composites and higher than that of banana by nearly 33%. The modulus of elasticity and failure strain of DP composites were nearly 3 GPa and up to 3% respectively. The flexural strength of DP composites (35 MPa) was in the same range as that of sisal and abaca. The normalized impact energy of DP composites was higher than that of banana by 50%. The dynamic mechanical analysis of the six composites showed similar behavior with a glass transition temperature around 10 °C. Finally, the water absorption behavior of DP composites was better than the other composites (lower than sisal by 63%). The results showed that DP fibers are good candidates for applications in automotive interior composites, given their competitive performance and high potential availability.</jats:p>

Topics

• glass
• glass
• strength
• composite
• flexural strength
• glass transition temperature
• elasticity
• tensile strength
• void
• dynamic mechanical analysis