Statistical experimental design and modeling of polypropylene–wood fiber composites

The influence of the amount of maleated polypropylene coating of vinyl-tris (2-methoxy ethoxy) silane treated wood-fibers (2 or 10 wt%), type of matrix (polypropylene or maleated polypropylene) and composition (10, 20 or 30 wt%) on the tensile and flexural performance of polypropylene–wood fiber composites was studied. The effect of these variables on tensile strength, Young's modulus, elongation at yield and flexural strength was determined through a 22·31 factorial design. The analysis of variance of the experimental and predicted data shows that the constructed models provide a fair approximation of actual experimental measurements. Finally, experimental details regarding the preparation of optimum composites as predicted by empirical models are discussed.