Mechanical Properties and Fracture Toughness of Alkali Treated Oil Palm Fruit Bunch (OPFB) Fibre/Epoxy Composites

Mechanical properties of oil palm fruit bunch (OPFB) fibre composites have been quite extensively research by many researchers. However fracture toughness of this composite is still not fully understood. Hence this research used Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) at three different concentrations (1%, 3% and 5%) to treat the Oil palm fruit bunch (OPFB) fibre to investigate the effects of alkali treatment on the mechanical properties and facture toughness of OPFB fibre/epoxy composites. Tensile and fracture tests results indicate that the 3% NaOH concentration gave the best mechanical properties. An increase of 12% and 18% were observed for tensile and flexural moduli, meanwhile the increament of 9% was observed for tensile strength. However no increase on flexural strength was observed due to the OPFB treatment. Suggestion has been made to further study on the NaOH concentration in the range of 2% - 4%.