Polypropylene

ABSTRACT: In the present work, mechanical response, water uptake, and dielectric properties of jute fiber-reinforced polypropylene (PP) composites are studied. Uniaxial tensile and Izod notched tests are conducted for a range of fiber volume fraction. It was found that the tensile Young’s modulus and tensile strength monotonically increased with increasing the fiber volume fraction, whereas the impact resistance increased up to a critical value of the fiber volume fraction and then declined. Furthermore, different predictive models are successfully applied to describe the dependence of tensile properties on fiber content. Fracture surface observation by SEM of samples broken in static and impact tests showed matrix yielding and brittle matrix behavior, respectively. Fiber pullout and poor fiber– matrix adhesion were also observed in the fracture surfaces. A change in the dependence of the water uptake and dielectric properties with fiber loading at a critical fiber content was also found. KEY WORDS: natural fiber composites, jute, polypropylene, mechanical proper-ties, water absorption, dielectric properties