Fracture characterisation of short bamboo fibre reinforced polyester composites

In the study, fracture behaviour of short bamboo fibre reinforced polyester composites is investigated. The matrix is reinforced with fibres ranging from 10 to 50, 30 to 50 and 30 to 60 vol.% at increments of 10 vol.% for bamboo fibres at 4, 7 and 10 mm lengths respectively. The results reveal that at 4 mm of fibre length, the increment in fibre content deteriorates the fracture toughness. As for 7 and 10 mm fibre lengths, positive effect of fibre reinforcement is observed. The optimum fibre content is found to be at 40 vol.% for 7 mm fibre and 50 vol.% for 10 mm fibre. The highest fracture toughness is achieved at 10 mm/50 vol.% fibre reinforced composite, with 340% of improvement compared to neat polyester. Fractured surfaces investigated through the Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) describing different failure mechanisms are also reported.