Evaluatıon of Tensile Strength of Cattle Horn Fiber-Reınforced Recycled Low Density Polyethlene Composite

Abstract

This work presents cattle horn as new reinforcement natural fiber in thermo plastic composite production. And in particular, it evaluates  the effect of different cattle horn fiber volume fraction, cattle horn fiber length sand treatment of the fiber with NaOH on recycled low  density polyethylene (RLDPE) with respect to tensile strength property of the composite. This was done to contribute to the latest effort  of replacing synthetic fibers which are non-renewable, decomposable and recyclable with natural fiber such as cattle horn fiber. Nine  different samples of composites were produced using compounding and compression method. The disposed water sachet plastics acted  as the source of RLDPE used in the research. Likewise, the cattle horns were picked randomly, cleaned and machined into fibers with the  lengths 6mm, 12mm and 18mm, then modified with 0.1,0.2 and 0.3M of NaOH. Moreover, the proportions of matrix materials (RLDPE)  were variedby 10% interval ranging from 70% to 90% and fiber loading from 10-30%.L-9 Taguchiarray method was used to design and  analyze the results in order to find the best combination of fiber length, fiber and matrix volume fraction, and proportion of NaOH that  would give the optimum tensile strength. The results revealed that sample with 0.1M, 6mm cattle horn fiber length (CHFL) and 10% cattle  horn fiber volume (CHFV) fraction has maximum tensile strength. This means that, the tensile property of cattle horn reinforced RLDPE  did not depend on the higher fiber loading. Also, NaOH treatment contributed highest percent of 47.08% to the tensile strength while   CHFV contributed 11.71% but tensile strength decreases with increment in fiber length.