PDPM Indian Institute of Information Technology, Design and Manufacturing, Jabalpur

Dispersed Phase
By
Sangharatna Ramteke
Research Scholar
1520366

4/9/2018 1
Contents
• Fiber Reinforcements
 Natural Fibers
• Bast Fibers
• Leaf Fibers
• Seed Fibers
• Synthetic Fibers
 Glass Fibers
 Carbon Fibers
 Organic Fibers
 Ceramic Fibers
Dispersed phase
• The dispersed phase can be in the form of long fibers, short fibers,
whiskers, flakes, sheets, or particulates.
• Among these forms, fiber forms are widely used in the composites because
of their superior properties and load transfer characteristics.
• A fiber can be defined as an elongated material, mostly with a circular
cross-section having a more or less uniform diameter of less than 250 μm
and an aspect ratio (length to diameter ratio) of more than 100.
• The fibrous materials can be broadly grouped into natural and synthetic
fibers.
• The plant kingdom is a rich source of natural fibers, and these fibers are
mainly based on cellulose.
• Some of the natural fibers are cotton, flax, jute, hemp, sisal, coir, and ramie.
• Animal kingdom also supplies many natural fibers.
• These fibers are mainly based on proteins. Hair, wool, and silk are
some of the natural fibers. The silk fibers produced by spider are
considered as the toughest material.
• Although natural fibers are relatively cheap and produced from renewable
sources, they are not widely used because of their poor mechanical
properties compared to synthetic fibers.
• The other problems with natural fibers are poor moisture resistance, non
uniform dimensions and properties, incompatibility with polymer matrices,
and poor weather resistance.
• Hence, natural fiber-reinforced polymer composites are used only in
applications where the load-bearing capacity is not very critical.
• A major advantage of natural fibers is their biodegradability.
• Biodegradable composites can be made by using natural fibers with
biodegradable polymer matrices.
• Unlike natural fibers, synthetic fibers are high-performance fibers.
• The modulus and strength values are very high for most of the synthetic
fibers.
• Some of the common synthetic fibers include glass, boron, carbon, aramid,
alumina, and silicon carbide.
Natural Fibers
• Nowadays environmental-friendly composites are the most sought-after
composites because of growing environmental concerns.
• The synthetic fiber based composites are difficult to dispose after their
utility.
• This has driven the use of natural fiber-reinforced composites (FRCs) for
less critical load bearing applications.
• Different kinds of natural fibers are available in different countries. The
separation of long fibers from the plants is a major issue. Nevertheless,
many types of natural fibers are processed in many countries.
• The advantages of natural fibers are as follows:
– The cost of the natural fibers is low (approximately 30% lower than glass
fibers).

– The density values of natural fibers are roughly one-half of the density of glass
fiber. Hence, the specific strength and modulus values are comparable to glass
fibers.

– It is a renewable resource and the production requires little energy.

– Unlike synthetic fiber production, the natural fiber plants release oxygen to the
environment by absorbing CO2. Moreover, these materials are biodegradable.
Hence, the natural fibers are environmental friendly materials.

– The polymer composites made using natural fibers can be thermally

decomposed easily, whereas glass fiber causes problem in combustion
furnaces.
• The disadvantages of natural fibers are as follows:
– There is a wide variation in dimensions and properties. The quality of the fibers
depends on the place of cultivation and weather conditions.

– The price of the fiber depends on the harvest results and agricultural policies.

– Even though the specific strength and stiffness of natural fibers

are comparable to glass fibers, the actual mechanical properties are lower.

– Moisture absorption is another major problem for the natural fibers

and the fibers swell on moisture absorption. This affects the durability of
composites. Hence, the natural FRCs are only suitable for indoor applications.

– The maximum processing temperature of composites is limited due

to the degradation of natural fibers. Hence, the natural fibers are suitable for
only certain organic polymer matrices.
Bast Fiber
• The bast of a plant consists of wood core surrounded by stem.
• The stem is made up of fiber bundles and each fiber bundle has many
individual filaments.
• The fiber bundles are bonded together by lignin or pectin.
• The pectin is removed during the retting process and that enables the
separation of individual fiber bundles.
• Even after the removal of pectin by the retting process, lignin will be
holding the individual filaments together.
• Lignin affects the bonding of fiber with polymer matrix, and hence, the
performance of the composite will be poor.

Stem
Wood core
Leaf Fibers and Seed Fibers
• In general, the leaf fibers are coarser than the bast fibers. Some of the leaf
fibers are sisal and palm.
• Among these fibers, sisal fiber is the most important fiber, since it is
relatively stiff. It is obtained from the agave plant.
• Cotton, coir, and kapok are the common seed fibers.
• Cotton fiber is used in textile industry all over the world. Coir fiber is
derived from coconut husk.
• It is a coarse fiber with good flexibility. Kapok fiber is a hollow fiber with a
sealed tail. It is a short fiber with a smooth, silky surface.
• The strength of this fiber is not high.

Agave or sisal plant Leaf fibers Seed fibers

Synthetic Fibers
• The majority of the composites produced today are based on synthetic
fibers, since there are many drawbacks with the natural fibers.
• The properties of a particular type of natural fiber vary from place to place.
Hence, it may not be possible to produce a natural FRC with the desired
properties.
• Moreover, the natural fibers degrade rapidly under normal environmental
conditions.
• However, the synthetic fibers have narrow range of properties and also they
are more resistant to normal environmental conditions.
• Some of the commonly used synthetic fibers are glass, carbon, aramid,
polyethylene, aluminum oxide, aluminum silicates, and silicon carbide.

Synthetic fibers
Glass Fibers
• Glass fibers are the most widely used fiber reinforcements in composites,
especially in polymer matrix composites.
• Bulk glass has high hardness, moderate stiffness, transparency, and
chemical resistance.
• In addition to that, glass in the fiber form has high strength and good
flexibility.
• Many structural composites, printed circuit boards, and wide range special
products are manufactured using glass fibers as reinforcement.

Glass Fibers
Carbon Fibers
• Carbon exists in various allotropic forms.
• The three important forms are graphite, diamond, and fullerenes.
• Carbon atoms are arranged in a hexagonal fashion in the graphite structure.
• It has a layer structure with closely packed and strongly bonded carbon
atoms in the layer and weak van der Waals forces between the layers.
• Graphite is a highly anisotropic material, because of this structure.
• Diamond has a cubic structure with strong covalent bonding in all the
three directions.
• Fullerenes are made of 60 or 70 carbon atoms.

Car decorated
with carbon
fibers based
composites
Organic Fibers
• Synthetic organic fibers are made from organic polymers having linear
molecular chains.
• In general, the molecular chains in polymeric materials
are neither arranged in a regular order nor fully stretched.
• The molecular chains are held together by very weak secondary bonds.
This type of random coil structure is responsible for the poor mechanical
properties of polymers.
• The polymer molecules undergo stretching and orientation during
load application.
• A force sufficient to overcome the weak van der Waals force
is only required to initiate deformation. This is the reason for the low
modulus values for most of the polymers, which are generally less than 10
GPa.
• It is possible to improve the modulus values of polymers by stretching and
aligning the polymer molecules in a particular direction. Very high modulus
values have been realized by complete stretching and orientation of linear
polymer molecules.
Organic
fibers
Ceramic Fibers
• The operating conditions of components are becoming more severe as the
technology develops. One of the severe operating conditions is high
temperature.
• Apart from the matrix materials, the fiber should also withstand this
condition.
• Ceramic fibers are the suitable candidates for this type of environment.
• They usually have high modulus and high strength values and retain them
at high temperatures.

Ceramic Sheet