Tensile Behaviour of Centrally Holed Pineapple Fibre Reinforced Vinyl Ester Composites

Abstract

The composite parts having holes need to experimentally examined for understanding their behaviour under mechanical loading conditions. So, an initial attempt was made to reinforce the locally available pineapple leaf fibre in as-is condition and after chemical treatment into vinyl ester matrix for preparation of the composites according to ASTM D5766/5766M—07 standard by rolling cum hand lay-up technique. Drilling holes of 3, 6 and 8 mm in diameter was performed slowly and carefully without disturbing the fibres in matrix. Fibres were examined under SEM and its diameter is in the range of 3.12–16.6 µm. Unwanted impurities cum waxy materials washed away from the fibre after alkali treatment and were confirmed from the SEM image. Plain, untreated pineapple leaf fibre composites tensile strength was decreased up to 6 mm hole and thereafter, it was increased. Similar trend was observed after determination of modulus of the composites. However, treated fibre composites tensile strength and modulus were improved beyond the 3 mm hole. Tensile fractured specimens revealed the fibre–matrix interactions.