Quasi-static and dynamic mechanical thermal performance of date palm/glass fiber hybrid composites

The present work reports an experimental study on the thermal and mechanical properties of hybrid composites obtained from Petiole Date Palm Fiber (PDPF)/Glass fiber (GF) as reinforcement and vinylester resin (VE). In order to improve the fiber/matrix adhesion, palm fibers were alkali treated with 5% NaOH solution for 24 h–72h. SEM and ATR-FTIR analysis revealed that the 48 h treatment of PDFP with NaOH solution led to rough fiber surface. Vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) system was used to produce four hybrid composites (30PDPF/0GF, 20PDPF/10GF, 10PDPF/20GF and 0PDPF/30GF) where the weight ratio of total fiber reinforcement was kept 30%. The treated palm fibers were arranged as a nonwoven mat and placed between woven glass fabrics. Tensile, flexural, dynamic mechanical thermal analysis (DMTA), and thermogravimetric (TGA) were carried out to evaluate the performance of the hybrid composites. The flexural strength and modulus for pure PDPF composite were found to be 60 MPa and 3.87 GPa respectively. Addition of 20%wt glass fiber led an increase in the thermal stability and an enhancement in the tensile and flexural strength by 71.72% and 74.51%, respectively compared to pure PDPF composite. However, the incorporation of 10% of PDPF increases the damping factor from 0.2 for the composite glass/VE to 0.54 for the hybrid 10PDPF/20GF. According to findings of this study, PDPF based composites can be used as non-structural parts in automotive and boat industries.