The Effects of Fiber Architecture and Fiber Surface Treatment on Physical Properties of Woven Sisal Fiber/Epoxy Composites

The aim of this work was to investigate the effects of fiber architecture and fiber surface treatment on flexural and impact properties of woven sisal fiber/epoxy composites. The woven sisal fibers with three different weave types including plain weave (P-weave), harness satin weave (S-weave) and right hand twill weave (R-weave) were used. For untreated fiber/epoxy composites, the fiber contents in the composite were 0, 5, 10 and 15% by weight (%wt). The untreated S-weave sisal fiber/epoxy composites showed the best overall properties and the composites with 15% fiber loading showed the highest properties. When compared to pure epoxy, flexural strength, flexural modulus and impact strength of the composite with 15% wt fiber increased by 4.5%, 60.6% and 150% respectively. Therefore, the composite of 15% wt silane treated S-weave and epoxy was prepared in order to study the effect of fiber surface treatment. The results showed that the composite containing 15% wt silane treated fiber possessed nearly the same properties with the untreated fiber/epoxy composite.