| Abstrakt: |
Environmental and social concerns due to the generation of huge amounts of waste and their improper disposal are some of the serious challenges faced by contemporary civilisation. In the present study, the feasibility of waste-based composites (WBC) which were developed using banana stalk fibres and waste low-density polyethylene (LDPE) was characterised and studied. Pre-treated and untreated banana fibres were added as reinforcement to the LDPE matrix with different weight percentages of 0, 10, 15, 20 and 25%. Mercerisation process was undertaken as the pre-treatment method and 5% (by weight) of NaOH solution was used. WBC sheets were developed using hand lay-up process, and with hot press and cold press machines. Density, uniaxial tensile and water absorption tests were conducted for the developed WBC. Density, Young's modulus, yield stress, yield strain, ultimate stress, failure strain, resilience modulus, toughness modulus and saturated water absorption were analysed to characterise their properties. The findings indicated that with the addition of banana fibres, enhancements in density, Young's modulus, yield stress, maximum stress, resilience modulus and water absorption capacity were observed while showing reductions in yield strain, failure strain and toughness modulus compared to unreinforced waste-based LDPE sheets. By considering the overall results, 20 and 15% of optimum fibre additions were observed for pre-treated and untreated fibres, respectively, and mercerisation has positively attributed to the characteristics of WBC. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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