Micromechanical analysis on tensile properties prediction of discontinuous randomized zalacca fibre/high-density polyethylene composites under critical fibre length
Dody Ariawan, Eko Surojo, Joko Triyono, Ibrahim Fadli Purbayanto, Agil Fitri Pamungkas, Aditya Rio Prabowo
Abstract
In this research, the tensile properties' performance of compression moulded discontinuous randomized zalacca fibre/high-density polyethylene under critical fibre length was analysed by means of experimental method and micromechanical models. These investigations were used to verify the tensile properties models toward the effect of fibre length and volume fraction on the composites. The experimental results showed that the tensile properties of composites had significantly increased due to the enhancement of fibre length. On the contrary, a decline in the tensile properties was observed with the increase of volume fraction. A comparison was made between the available experimental results and the performances of Tsai-Pagano, Christensen and Cox-Krechel models in their prediction of composites elastic modulus. The results showed that the consideration of fibre's elastic anisotropy in the Cox-Krenchel model had yielded a good prediction of the composites modulus, nevertheless the models could not accurately predict the composites modulus for fibre length study.