Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

The objective of this study is to analyse the cross direction tensile properties of composite non-woven fabrics. Three different blend proportion, that is, 20% sisal/80% polypropylene, 80% sisal/20% polypropylene and 50% sisal/50% polypropylene were used to study the tensile properties of the composite non-woven fabrics. Box–Behnken design has been used with three parameters namely, punch density, depth of needle penetration and mass per unit area. The samples produced were subjected to calendaring at 145℃ temperature and 6.12 kg/cm² pressure. The tensile strength of tested fabrics has been analysed in detail and it has been found that 20% sisal/80% polypropylene composite non-woven fabric is performing better than other blends.

Keywords

Non-woven tensile cross direction needle punching punch density depth of needle penetration mass per unit area

Introduction

Non-woven textiles have been contributing enormously in the field of geo-textiles in recent years. Certain applications are in road laying, bank protection in dams and reservoirs, erosion control and filtration. Good tensile properties and the low cost of non-woven fabric have prompted the usage of these materials in geotextile applications. Non-woven materials produced using needle punching machine which is very popular in this application. The fabric and machine parameters like mass per unit area, punch density and depth of needle penetration affect the tensile strength properties of composite non-woven fabric. Several studies have reported the characteristics of the non-woven fabrics and their industrial usage.

The development of non-woven from natural fibres for various applications have been analysed by Indu and Senthilkumar [1]. They have found that non-woven fabric of 30/70 sisal/coir blend had exhibited many desirable properties and it is suitable for light weight low cost doors [1]. The orientation of sisal fibre-reinforced epoxy composites (SFRC) has been studied by Kumaresan et al. [2] and found that orientation of 90° SFRC showed better mechanical properties than 0°/90° and ±45° sisal fibre-reinforced epoxy composites. The mechanical properties of sisal fibre blended reinforced hybrid composites were evaluated by Chaithanyan et al. [3] and found that the tensile strength of sisal-glass composite was found to be better than the coir-glass composite materials. The mechanical property evaluation of sisal and banana fibre with tyre particles reinforced epoxy hybrid composites was studied by Loganathan Vadivel [4] and showed that the addition of banana fibre in sisal/tyre particles composites of up to 45% by weight resulted in increasing the mechanical properties. Oladele et al. [5] studied the tensile properties of the sisal fibre-reinforced polyester composites, which were improved by the KOH treatment. The effect of sisal fibre surface treatment on properties of sisal fibre-reinforced polylactide composites was studied by Li et al. [6] and reported that surface-treated sisal fibre-reinforced composite offered superior mechanical properties compared to untreated fibre-reinforced polylactide composite. The hybrid reinforcement of sisal and polypropylene fibres in cement-based composites was analysed by Tonoli et al. [7], and observed that the great contribution of pulp refinement on the improvement of the mechanical strength in the composites.⁷ The bio fibre-reinforced polypropylene composites were studied by Karnani et al. [8] and found that the modified matrix composites have superior mechanical properties than unmodified matrix because of enhanced polar interactions at the fibre/matrix interface. The physical and mechanical properties of sisal fibre-reinforced hybrid polymer composites were studied by Venkatesh et al. [9] and observed that the addition of sisal fibre in sisal unsaturated polyester composites of up to 50% by weight results in increasing the mechanical properties and decreasing moisture absorption property.⁹ The material properties, tensile properties of fabrics and composites in sisal-reinforcement were studied by various researchers [10 –15]. Mechanical and water absorption behaviour of banana/sisal-reinforced hybrid composites was studied by Venkateshwaran et al. [16], and analysed the fracture behaviour and fibre pull-out of the samples using scanning electron microscope. The mechanical characterization of sisal fibre was analysed by Fiore et al. [17], and showed that 120 h is the optimum time for treating sisal fibre to achieve highest interfacial adhesion and mechanical properties with epoxy matrix. The tensile, flexural and impact properties of the randomly oriented short sisal-reinforced epoxy composite were studied by Maurya et al. [18] and reported that flexural strength was improved 25% by 15 mm sisal fibre and large improvement was observed in impact properties by 20 mm sisal fibre. Tensile and flexural properties of sisal fibre-reinforced epoxy composite were studied by Gupta and Srivastava [19] and found that the composite with unidirectional orientation of fibres gives better tensile and flexural properties in comparison to the mat form. The comparative evaluation on properties of hybrid glass fibre–sisal/jute-reinforced epoxy composites were analysed by Ramesh et al. [20] and reported that the incorporation of sisal fibre with GFRP exhibited superior tensile properties than the jute fibre-reinforced GFRP composites. The mechanical properties of the composite under tensile, flexural and impact loading were studied by Mukhopadhyay and Srikanta [21], and the changes in the stress–strain characteristics, yield stress, tensile strength and tensile (Young’s) modulus, due to ageing have been analysed. The tensile behaviour of sisal/hemp reinforced high density polyethylene hybrid composite was studied by Singh et al. [22], and found that the tensile strength of the hybrid composite increased with increasing sisal content from 5% to 20% but decreased with increasing the content of hemp fibre 5% to 20%. The effect of sisal fibre loading on dynamic mechanical analysis and water absorption behaviour of jute fibre epoxy composite materials was studied by Gupta and Srivastava [23], and found that the hybrid composite with 30% weight jute and sisal fibre content shows the maximum value of storage and loss modulus whereas lower value of damping parameter and percentage water absorption. Improving degradation resistance of sisal fibre in concrete through fibre surface treatment was described by Wei and Meyer [24], and found that the microstructure, tensile strength and Young’s modulus of sisal fibre as well as the weight loss of the composite were evaluated. Ramesh et al. [25] studied sisal–jute–glass fibre-reinforced polyester composites and reported that the incorporation of sisal–jute fibre with GFRP can improve the properties and used as an alternate material for glass fibre-reinforced polymer composites. Composite fibre based on sisal fibre and calcium carbonate was studied by Dante [26], and found that the final composite exhibited more amorphous characteristics than the original raw fibre, as well as its mechanical behaviour was very similar to an elastomeric material with more homogeneous mechanical properties than the original raw fibre.

The tensile properties of composite material is playing major role on the application of technical textile in the area of geotextile, industrial textile and automobile textile [27 –29]. Although many research works have been carried out recently on composite materials, application of sisal and polypropylene blends have not been studied extensively and no exclusive study has been reported in this area of cross direction tensile properties of sisal with polypropylene blended needle punched non-woven fabrics with different blend proportion. The sisal with polypropylene blended composite non-woven fabrics are suitable for geotextile application because of the fact that their structural order, ability to flex and conform to most desired shapes offer great opportunity to develop a new generation of sisal with polypropylene blended composite non-woven for the above application which would meet the requirements of cross direction tensile properties of sisal with polypropylene blended composite non-woven fabric. For this purpose, Box–Behnken design has been used to optimize the process parameters of needle punching machine in this research.

Materials and Methods

Materials

The sisal and the polypropylene fibres have been selected to produce different types of composite non-woven fabrics for this study. Sisal fibre was selected because the cost of flax fibre is approximately twice or even higher than the cost of sisal fibre. The cost of sisal fibre is in the range of USD 1.5–2.5 (INR 100–170) per kg, whereas the cost of flax fibre is in the range of USD 5–8 (INR 350–550) per kg [30, 31]. Polypropylene fibre is widely used in geotextile applications all over the world. In this study, properties of blends of sisal and polypropylene fibre were studied. Table 1 shows the fibre properties of sisal and polypropylene and different blend proportions (20% sisal/80% polypropylene (Fabric Group A), 80% sisal/20% polypropylene (Fabric Group B), 50% sisal/50% polypropylene (Fabric Group C)), used to produce composite non-woven fabrics.

Table 1.

Fibre properties.

S.No.		Fibre properties		Samples	Blend proportion
S.No.		Sisal	Polypropylene	Samples	Blend proportion
1	Linear density	150 D	6 D	Sample A	20% sisal/80% polypropylene
2	Length	15.8 cm	6.22 cm	Sample B	80 % sisal/20% polypropylene
3	Strength	2.36 N	3.7 N	Sample C	50 % sisal/50% polypropylene

The process parameters namely, mass per unit area, punch density and depth of needle penetration used in Box–Behnken design has been shown in Table 2.

Table 2.

Process parameter.

S.No.	Parameters	−1	0	+1
1	Mass per unit area (X1)	250	350	450
2	Depth of depth of needle penetration (mm) (X2)	8	10	12
3	Punch density (X3)	200	300	400

The sample produced in the form of needle punched non-woven fabric and then subjected to calendaring process which was carried out under process conditions of 145℃ temperature, 6.12 kg/cm² pressure and a machine speed of 1 m/min. During the process of calendaring the material passes through the calendaring roller at the speed of 1.66 cm/s (1 m/min). During this process, the polypropylene fibres may be subjected to partial melting and the sticking of fibres with each other.

Production of fabric

The non-woven fabrics were produced using needle punching machine. The sequence of machines used for the production of non-woven fabric is given in Figure 1.

Figure 1.

Flow diagram for the production of non-woven fabric.

Random fibre orientation was noticed in the cross lapper web. The non-woven fabric was produced using the needle punching machine using regular needle R332G53012 which has two barbs with the dimension of 15 × 17 × 40 × 3 was used to punch the fabric.

Tensile testing

Fibre testing

The single fibre strength has been measured for sisal and polypropylene by Instron tester as per ASTM D 3822.

Composite non-woven fabric testing

All the three set of fabrics were evaluated for their cross direction tensile properties using Instron tester as per ASTM D 4632. The cross direction of the fabric sample is defined based on the delivery direction of the sample from the needle punching machine. The axis along the direction of delivery is considered as machine direction and the direction perpendicular to machine direction is assumed as cross direction of the sample, which is shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2.

Schematic diagram of the fabric sample represents cross direction.

Results and discussion

Table 3. shows cross direction tensile strength values of Fabric Group A, B and C composite non-wovens.

Table 3.

Tensile strength in cross direction for different types of fabrics.

Fabric Code	X1	X2	X3	Fabric Group A		Fabric Group B		Fabric Group C
Fabric Code	X1	X2	X3	Force N	e_B %	Force N	e_B %	Force N	e_B %
1	250	8	300	641.81	98.70	199.21	89.83	329.83	92.82
2	450	8	300	1124.35	90.23	481.12	84.47	684.99	99.23
3	250	12	300	927.22	98.85	234.21	85.57	393.35	99.87
4	450	12	300	1206.84	82.40	588.00	66.44	612.15	94.03
5	250	10	200	799.27	94.36	162.24	81.18	344.71	92.07
6	450	10	200	1199.17	89.69	451.07	82.43	665.26	94.35
7	250	10	400	693.45	97.59	219.08	71.83	389.08	96.77
8	450	10	400	1187.59	80.97	574.61	72.23	757.10	96.98
9	350	8	200	722.24	88.12	234.53	72.90	390.91	96.99
10	350	12	200	769.12	92.34	297.88	99.42	399.47	85.10
11	350	8	400	799.97	80.14	85.05	99.21	398.63	88.46
12	350	12	400	841.71	88.43	314.12	76.10	409.46	85.49
13	350	10	300	771.43	94.78	310.14	79.87	375.57	87.87
14	350	10	300	772.12	94.87	318.13	90.06	376.10	97.09
15	350	10	300	772.18	95.02	308.25	76.71	376.57	95.08

Effect of mass per unit area and punch density on cross direction tensile property

Figures 3 –5 show the effect of mass per unit area and punch density on cross-directional tensile strength of Fabric Group A, B and C. From the Figures 3 –5, it has been observed that the cross-directional tensile properties of all these fabrics increase with increase in the mass per unit area and punch density. It may be due to the more number of fibre accumulation, fibre orientation and interlocking of sisal and polypropylene fibres in non-woven fibre web. The cross direction tensile strength of Fabric Group A range from 641 N to 1206 N whereas for Fabric Group B tensile strength range from 162 N to 588 N and for Fabric Group C, it ranges from 329 N to 757 N. The cross direction tensile properties of all the composite fabrics used in this study are generally influenced by the mass per unit area and the component fibres.

Figure 3.

Effect of mass per unit area and punch density on tensile strength of 20% sisal/80% polypropylene.

Figure 4.

Effect of mass per unit area and punch density on tensile strength of 80% sisal/20% polypropylene.

Figure 5.

Effect of mass per unit area and punch density on tensile strength of 50% sisal/50% polypropylene.

Effect of depth of needle penetration and punch density on cross direction tensile property

Figures 6 –8 shows the effect of depth of needle penetration and punch density on cross-directional tensile strength of Fabric Group A, B and C. Figure 6 shows that increase in the depth of needle penetration and punch density results in slight decrease at first and then increase in the cross-directional tensile strength of Fabric Group A samples. This depth of needle penetration interlocks the fibres from top layer to bottom and holds the fibre structure together by frictional forces of fibres and this may be the reason for increased strength. The sisal and polypropylene fibres are highly strong fibres which tend to form more uniform web and provide the more tensile strength. Similar results were observed for Fabric Group B and C which are shown in the Figures 7 and 8, respectively.

Figure 6.

Effect of depth of needle penetration and punch density on tensile strength of 20% sisal/80% polypropylene.

Figure 7.

Effect of depth of needle penetration and punch density on tensile strength of 80% sisal/20% polypropylene.

Figure 8.

Effect of depth of needle penetration and punch density on tensile strength of 50% sisal/50% polypropylene.

Effect of depth of needle penetration and mass per unit area on cross direction tensile property

Figures 9 –11 show the effect of depth of needle penetration and mass per unit area on cross direction tensile strength of Fabric Group A, B and C. The cross-directional tensile properties of all these fabrics increase with increase in the depth of needle penetration and mass per unit area.

Figure 9.

Effect of mass per unit area and depth of needle penetration on tensile strength of 20% sisal/80% polypropylene.

Figure 10.

Effect of mass per unit area and depth of needle penetration on tensile strength of 80% sisal/20% polypropylene.

Figure 11.

Effect of mass per unit area and depth of needle penetration on tensile strength of 50% sisal/50% polypropylene.

In Fabric Group A, mass per unit area significantly influences the tensile strength of the fabrics, whereas in Fabric Group B, mass per unit area and depth of needle penetration is significant. But in case of Fabric Group C, all the process parameters namely, mass per unit area, punch density and depth of needle penetration are all significant to influence the strength properties.

The cross-directional tensile strength of the produced geo-textile samples were compared with the commercially available geo-textile product, which has strength of approximately 912 N according to ASTM D 4632 and highest tensile strength of the produced sample in this research with mass per unit area of 450 g/m², depth of needle penetration of 10 mm and punch density of 400 punches/cm² has approximately 1187 N. It is evident that some of the produced sample shows comparatively higher tensile strength than the commercially available geo-textile.

The ANOVA results of the cross direction tensile strength properties of Fabric Group A, B and C with Box–Behnken experimental design analysis show that the regression coefficients of the quadratic polynomial models describing the relationship between the responses of tensile strength properties on cross direction against three factors (mass per unit area, depth of needle penetration and punch density) and regression equation were shown in equations below.

CrossDirectiontensilestrength = + 771.91 + 207.03 \times A + 57.07 \times B + 4.11 \times C - 50.73 \times AB + 23.56 \times AC - 1.29 \times BC + 194.87 \times A^{2} + 8.27 \times B^{2} + 3.08 \times C^{2}

(1)

CrossDirectiontensilestrength = + 312.18 + 160.01 \times A + 54.29 \times B + 5.89 \times C + 17.97 \times AB + 16.68 \times AC + 41.43 \times BC + 91.16 \times A^{2} - 27.70 \times B^{2} - 51.58 \times C^{2}

(2)

CrossDirectiontensilestrength = + 376.08 + 157.82 \times A + 1.26 \times B + 19.24 \times C - 34.09 \times AB + 11.87 \times AC + 0.57 \times BC + 134.21 \times A^{2} - 5.21 \times B^{2} + 28.75 \times C^{2}

(3)

Conclusion

The influence of process parameters namely, mass per unit area, depth of needle penetration and punch density on the cross direction tensile properties of composite non-woven fabrics have been studied extensively. Out of the three blend proportions, Fabric Group A has recorded the highest tensile strength. The tensile strength had direct correlation with all the three process parameters. In all the fabrics used for this study, it has been observed that the increase in mass per unit area, punch density and depth of needle penetration has resulted in increase of tensile strength. Blending of sisal fibre helps in bringing down the cost of the composite non-woven fabric without affecting the strength properties.

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

References

Indu

Senthilkumar

. Development of nonwovens from natural fibres for various applications. Intl J Appl Engg Res 2016; 11: 1879–1882.

Kumaresan

Sathish

Karthi

. Effect of fiber orientation on mechanical properties of sisal fiber reinforced epoxy composites. J Appl Sci Eng 2015; 18: 289–294.

Chaithanyan

Venkatasubramanian

Raghuraman

et al.

Evaluation of mechanical properties of coir sisal reinforced hybrid composites using isophthalic polyester resin. Int J Innov Res Sci Eng Tech 2013; 2: 7479–7487.

Loganathan

Vadivel

. Mechanical property evaluation of sisal and banana fiber with tyre particles reinforced epoxy hybrid composites. Int J Appl Mech Prod Eng 2015; 1: 20–23.

Oladele

Daramola

Fasooto

. Effect of chemical treatment on the mechanical properties of sisal fibre reinforced polyester composites. Leonardo El J Pract Technol 2014; 24: 1–12.

Li Z, Zhou X and Pei C. Effect of sisal fiber surface treatment on properties of sisal fiber reinforced polylactide composites. Int J Pol Sci 2011; Article ID 803428.

Tonoli

GHD

Savastano

Jr Santos

et al.

Hybrid reinforcement of sisal and polypropylene fibers in cement-based composites. J Mater Civil Eng 2011; 23: 177–187.

Karnani

Krishnan

Narayan

. Bio fiber-reinforced polypropylene composites. Pol Eng Sci 1997; 37: 476–483.

Venkatesh

Ramanathan

Krishanan

. Study on physical and mechanical proeprties of NFRP hybrid composites. Int J Pure App Sci 2015; 53: 175–180.

10.

Thais

Mochnaz

Amico

. Pull-out and other evaluations in sisal-reinforced polyester bio composites. Polym Test 2003; 23: 375–380.

11.

Silva

Filho

RDT

MeloFilho

et al.

Physical and mechanical properties of durable sisal fiber-cement composites. Constr Build Mater 2010; 24: 777–785.

12.

Palanikumar

Reddy

. Mechanical property evaluation of sisal-jute-glass fiber reinforced polyester composites. Compos Part B Eng 2012; 48: 1–9.

13.

Sreekumar

Saiah

Saiter

et al.

Effect of chemical treatment on dynamic mechanical properties of sisal fibre reinforced polyester composites fabricated by resin transfer molding. Compos Interfaces 2008; 15: 263–279.

14.

Kim

Netravali

. Mercerization of sisal fibers: Effect of tension on mechanical properties of sisal fiber and fiber-reinforced composites. Compos Part A Appl Sci Manuf 2010; 41: 1245–1252.

15.

Silva

Zhu

Mobasher

et al.

High speed tensile behavior of sisal fiber cement composites. Mater Sci Eng A 2010; 527: 544–552.

16.

Venkateshwaran

ElayaPerumal

Alavudeen

et al.

Mechanical and water absorption behaviour of banana/sisal reinforced hybrid composites. Mater Design 2011; 32: 4017–4021.

17.

Fiore

Scalici

Nicoletti

et al.

A new eco-friendly chemical treatment of natural fibres: Effect of sodium bicarbonate on properties of sisal fibre and its epoxy composites. Compos Part B Eng 2016; 85: 150–160.

18.

Maurya

Gupta

Srivastava

et al.

Study on the mechanical properties of epoxy composite using short sisal fibre. Mater Today Proc 2015; 2: 1347–1355.

19.

Gupta

Srivastava

. Tensile and flexural properties of sisal fibre reinforced epoxy composite: A comparison between unidirectional and mat form of fibres. Procedia Mater Sci 2014; 5: 2434–2439.

20.

Ramesh

Palanikumar

Reddy

. Comparative evaluation on properties of hybrid glass fiber–sisal/jute reinforced epoxy composites. Procedia Eng 2013; 51: 745–750.

21.

Mukhopadhyay

Srikanta

. Effect of ageing of sisal fibres on properties of sisal–polypropylene composites. Pol Degrad Stabil 2008; 93: 2048–2051.

22.

Singh

Aggarwal

Gupta

. Tensile behavior of sisal/hemp reinforced high density polyethylene hybrid composite. Mater Today Proc 2015; 2: 3140–3148.

23.

Gupta MK and Srivastava RK. Effect of sisal fibre loading on dynamic mechanical analysis and water absorption behaviour of jute fibre epoxy composite. In: 4th international conference on materials processing and characterization. Mater Today Proc 2015; 2909–2917.

24.

Wei

Meyer

. Improving degradation resistance of sisal fiber in concrete through fiber surface treatment. Appl Surf Sci 2014; 289: 511–523.

25.

Ramesh

Palanikumar

Reddy

. Mechanical property evaluation of sisal–jute–glass fiber reinforced polyester composites. Compos Part B Eng 2013; 48: 1–9.

26.

Dante

Sánchez-Arévalo

Huerta

et al.

Composite fiber based on sisal fiber and calcium carbonate. J Nat Fiber 2014; 11: 121–135.

27.

Perumalraj

Dasaradhan

. Tensile properties of copper core yarn. J Reinf Plas Comp 2010; 29: 1–29.

28.

Perumalraj

. Composite materials for EMC. J Reinf Plas Comp 2010; 29: 2992–3005.

29.

Perumalraj

. Copper, stainless steel, glass core yarn and ply yarn woven fabric composite materials. J Reinf Plas Comp 2010; 29: 3074–3082.

30.

Indiamart, Sisal Fibre, www.indiamart.com/proddetail/sisal-fibers-13355436048.html (accessed 11 March 2017).

31.

Indiamart, Flax Fibre, www.indiamart.com/windowfashionsindia/flax-fiber.html#flax-fiber (accessed 11 March 2017).

Tensile characteristics of sisal and polypropylene fibre non-woven materials for geo-textile applications

Abstract

Keywords

Introduction

Materials and Methods

Materials

Production of fabric

Tensile testing

Fibre testing

Composite non-woven fabric testing

Results and discussion

Effect of mass per unit area and punch density on cross direction tensile property

Effect of depth of needle penetration and punch density on cross direction tensile property

Effect of depth of needle penetration and mass per unit area on cross direction tensile property

Conclusion

Footnotes

Declaration of Conflicting Interests

Funding

References