Natural fibre is increasingly used for polymer based composite development due to the fact that they are cheap, reneweable and eco-friendly. However, in order to boost their usage and area of application, there is need to optimize the process parameters of the end use properties of composites. In this research, Box-Behnken design based on response surface methodology was adopted to optimize the treated natural fibre as reinforcement of polypropylene matrix. Effect of fibre weight loading, compression time and compression temperature on tensile strength and modulus as responses were investigated. Honckenya fibre surface modification was done with Potash (KTN) at 4%w/w for 24hours. Short random Honckenya fibre reinforced PP composite were compounded at 200oC and subsequently compression moulded, afterwards tensile test was conducted on the developed composite. The critical fibre length of the short fibre was 5.09mm, while the fibres were chopped into 10mm length. From the analysis of variance based on Box-Behnken Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), the coefficient of determination R2 was 0.9935 and 0.9942 for tensile strength and modulus. The multiple response optimization processing parameters were 48wt% fibre loading, 12.52minute and 173.26oC with tensile strength and modulus responses of 18.59MPa and 671.14MPa respectively at a desirability of 0.988.
Key words: Key Words: Honckenya, Box-Behnkn, Critical Fibre Length, Polypropylene, Potash treatment, Natural fibre, Composites.
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