Porosity and Fiber Orientation of Banana Fiber Nonwoven Webs Using Image Analysis Technique

ABSTRACT

Natural fibers including banana are gaining a lot of importance as reenforcement for manufacturing of composite materials. Banana fibers can be converted into nonwoven webs and can be utilized as reenforcement in composite material which will reduce the wastage of resourceful natural material. Porosity of the banana fiber webs can affect the composite manufacturing process as well as the thermal properties of the product. Fiber orientation has an impact on the strength of the composite material. In this research, porosity and orientation of wet-laid banana fiber nonwoven were determined using image analysis technique. Variables of fiber length and alkali treatment were studied for their effect on these properties. The porosity of the nonwoven web decreased with alkali treatment whereas no effect was observed under fiber length of 15 to 50 mm. The orientation of the fibers in the web was affected when increasing the length of fibers. In untreated fibers, randomness was observed for fiber lengths of 15 mm to 25 mm whereas nonrandom patterns started to appear in the fiber lengths of 50 mm. For alkali treated fibers, the nonrandom patterns were not observed in longer fibers also. This suggested that alkali treatment improved the randomness of the fibers in the web.

摘要

包括香蕉在内的天然纤维在复合材料制造中的应用越来越重要. 香蕉纤维可以转化成非织造布网，作为复合材料的增强材料，减少资源丰富的天然材料的浪费. 香蕉纤维网的孔隙率会影响复合材料的制造过程以及产品的热性能. 纤维取向对复合材料的强度有影响. 采用图像分析技术对湿铺香蕉纤维非织造布的孔隙率和取向进行了测定. 研究了纤维长度和碱处理对这些性能的影响. 碱处理使非织造布的孔隙率降低，而纤维长度为15～50mm时，孔隙率无明显变化. 随着纤维长度的增加，纤维在纸幅中的取向受到影响. 在未经处理的纤维中，观察到15mm至25mm纤维长度的随机性，而50mm纤维长度开始出现非随机模式. 对于碱处理的纤维，在较长的纤维中也没有观察到非随机模式. 这说明碱处理改善了纤维网中纤维的随机性.

KEYWORDS:

• Porosity
• orientation
• wet-laid nonwoven webs
• banana fibers

关键词:

• 多孔性
• 方向
• 湿铺非织造布网
• 香蕉纤维

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge NED University of Engineering & Technology for providing funds to conduct this research work. We would also like to acknowledge the efforts of Dr. R. Hugh Gong for helping us to improve the quality of this paper.