INFLUENCE OF ALKALINE TREATMENTS ON TENSILE PROPERTIES OF ALPACA FABRIC REINFORCED EPOXY COMPOSITES

References: 14th International Multidisciplinary Scientific GeoConference SGEM 2014, www.sgem.org, SGEM2014 Conference Proceedings, ISBN 978-619-7105-21-6 / ISSN 1314-2704, June 19-25, 2014, Book 6, Vol. 2, 213-218 pp

ABSTRACT
A study on the effect of alkaline treatment on tensile properties of Alpaca fabric reinforced epoxy composites is presented in paper. The treatment was carry out using NaOH solutions at different concentration. The hydrophilic nature of Alpaca fabric makes it difficult to adhere to hydrophobic epoxy and there therefore posed three
problem of interfacial bonding between fabric and matrix and such treatment was need to alleviate such problem. The composite samples were tested for tensile properties determination. Some fractured samples were examined under scanning electron microscope (SEM) to study the microstructure of the materials. SEM observations on the fracture surface of composites showed that the surface modification of fabric occured and improved fibre-matrix adhesion and proved the effectiveness of the treatment.

Keywords: Fabric, Adhesion, Alkaline, Composites, Wettability