• Steel and Composite Structures
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• v.33 no.2
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• pp.299-306
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• 2019

The natural fibre composites are termed as bio-composites. They have shown a promising replacement to the current carbon/glass fibre reinforced composites as environmental friendly materials in specific applications. Natural fibre reinforced composites are potential materials for various engineering applications in automobile, railways, building and Aerospace industry. The natural fibre selected to fabricate the composite material is plant-based fibre e.g., sisal fibre. Sisal fibre is a suitable reinforcement for use in composites on account of its low density, high specific strength, and high hardness. Epoxy is a thermosetting polymer which is used as a resin in natural fibre reinforced composites. Hand lay-up technique was used to fabricate the composites by reinforcing sisal fibres into the epoxy matrix. Composites were prepared with the unidirectional alignment of sisal fibres. Test specimens with different fibre orientations were prepared. The fabricated composites were tested for mechanical properties. Impact test, tensile test, flexural test, hardness test, compression test, and thermal test of composites had been conducted to assess its suitability in industrial applications. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) test revealed the microstructural information of the fractured surface of composites.

• Bulletin of the Korean Chemical Society
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• v.35 no.1
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• pp.103-110
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• 2014

Sisal fiber, an agricultural resource abundantly available in china, has been used as raw material to prepare activated carbon with high surface area and huge pore volume by chemical activation with zinc chloride. The orthogonal test was designed to investigate the influence of zinc chloride concentration, impregnation ratio, activation temperature and activation time on preparation of activated carbon. Scanning electron micrograph, Thermo-gravimetric, $N_2$-adsorption isotherm, mathematical models such as t-plot, H-K equation, D-R equation and BJH methods were used to characterize the properties of the prepared carbons and the activation mechanism was discussed. The results showed that $ZnCl_2$ changed the pyrolysis process of sisal fiber. Characteristics of activated carbon are: BET surface area was $1628m^2/g$, total pore volume was $1.316m^3/g$ and ratio of mesopore volume to total pore volume up to 94.3%. These results suggest that sisal fiber is an attractive source to prepare mesoporous high-capacity activated carbon by chemical activation with zinc chloride.

• Structural Engineering and Mechanics
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• v.88 no.5
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• pp.481-492
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• 2023

The past earthquakes revealed the importance of the design of moment-resisting reinforced concrete framed structures with ductile behavior. Due to seismic activity, failures in framed structures are widespread in beam-column joints. Hence, the joints must be designed to possess sufficient strength and stiffness. This paper investigates the effects of fibers on the ductility of hybrid fiber reinforced self-compacting concrete (HFRSCC) when subjected to seismic actions; overcoming bottlenecks at the beam-column joints has been studied by adding low modulus sisal fiber and high modulus steel fiber. For this, the optimized dose of hooked end steel fiber content (1.5%) was kept constant, and the sisal fiber content was varied at the rate of 0.1%, up to 0.3%. The seismic performance parameters, such as load-displacement behavior, ductility, energy absorption capacity, stiffness degradation, and energy dissipation capacity, were studied. The ductility factor and the cumulative energy dissipation capacity of the hybrid fiber (steel fiber, 1.5% and sisal fiber, 0.2%) added beam-column joint specimen is 100% and 121% greater than the control specimen, respectively. And also the stiffness of the hybrid fiber reinforced specimen is 100% higher than the control specimen. Thus, the test results showed that adding hybrid fibers instead of mono fibers could significantly enhance the seismic performance parameters. Therefore, the hybrid fiber reinforced concrete with 1.5% steel and 0.2% sisal fiber can be effectively used to design structures in seismic-prone areas.

• Advances in concrete construction
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• v.15 no.6
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• pp.431-444
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• 2023

This study investigated the use of latex-modified sand concrete reinforced with sisal fibers (LMSC) as a repair material. Notably, no prior research has explored the application of LMSC for this purpose. This paper examines the interface bond strength and the type of failure between LMSC as a repair material and the normal concrete (NC) substrate utilising four different surfaces: without surface preparation as a reference (SR), hand hammer (HA), sandblasted (SB), and grooved (GR). The bond strength was measured by bi-surface shear, splitting tensile, and pull-off strength tests at 7, 28, and 90 days. Scanning electron microscopy analysis was also performed to study the microstructure of the interface between the normal concrete substrate and the latex-modified sand concrete reinforced with sisal fibers. The results of this study indicate that LMSC has bonding strength with NC, especially for HR and SB surfaces with high roughness. Therefore, substrate NC surface roughness is essential in increasing the bonding strength and adhesion. Eventually, The LMSC has the potential to repair and rehabilitate concrete structures.

• Composites Research
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• v.26 no.5
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• pp.273-278
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• 2013

PLA/PP polymer blends in various ratios (PLA:PP = 9:1, 4:1, 3:1, and 1:1), and their composites (PLA:PP = 1:1) with sisal fiber (10, 15 and 20 wt%) were fabricated using MAPP as compatibilizer. The aim of the work was to reduce the cost of biodegradable composites as well as to improve the impact strength of PLA using PP, a relatively cheaper thermoplastic. The developed composites were characterized for their morphological and mechanical properties. The tensile strength and modulus of the blends were decreased with increasing PP content whereas the strain at break and impact strength are increased. The tensile strength, modulus and water absorption were increased for hybrid composites with increasing fiber content.

• Korean Journal of Metals and Materials
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• v.46 no.8
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• pp.471-476
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• 2008

There has been a growing interest for the use of natural fibers in composite applications due to their low cost, environmental friendliness, and good mechanical properties. It was demonstrated to determine the characteristic of tensile behaviors under the variation of test temperature on sisal fiber reinforced polymer composites by RTM process. Especially, the permanganate-treated-fibers improved tensile strength by increasing the coherence with matrix. Material deformation is restricted to increment of cohesion for surface treatment of fiber and then elongation decreas.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.30 no.7 s.250
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• pp.779-786
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• 2006

Woven sisal textile reinforced composites were manufactured to evaluate fracture toughness, and tensile test. All specimens were immersed in water five times. All specimens are immersed in pure water during 9 days at room temperature, and dried in 1 day at $50^{\circ}C$. Two kinds of polymer matrices such as epoxy and vinyl-ester were used. Fractured surface were investigated to study the failure mechanism and fiber/matrix interfacial adhesion. It is shows that it can be enhanced to improve their mechanical performance to reveal the relationship between fracture toughness and water absorption fatigue according to different polymer matrices. Water uptake of the epoxy composites was found to increase with cycle times. Mechanical properties are dramatically affected by the water absorption cycles. Water-absorbed samples observed poor mechanical properties such as lower values of maximum strength and extreme elongation. The $K_{IC}$ values demonstrate a decrease in inclination with increasing cyclic times of wetting and drying fur the epoxy and vinyl-ester.

• Carbon letters
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.97-104
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• 2008

In the present study Sisal fiber obtained from the leaves of Agave sisalana has been chosen to validate its viability as an adsorbent for the removal of Nickel from aqueous solutions. The material was also surface modified and its effect on adsorption of Nickel was also studied. Agave sisalana fiber was found to be a cheap and effective adsorbent doing away with the need to activate the material therby reducing processing cost. The equilibrium studies indicated that the adsorption capacity of raw fiber and the surface modified fiber was 8.66 and 9.77 mg/g respectively with the Langmuir isotherm describing the adsorption phenomena better than the Freundlich and Temkin isotherm. The adsorption was found to be exothermic from the thermodynamic studies and the kinetics showed that the adsorption phenomena were second order.

• Journal of the Korean Recycled Construction Resources Institute
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.115-127
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• 2014

Addition of fibers in cement or cement concrete may be of current interest, but this is not a new idea or concept. Fibers of any material and shape play an important role in improving the strength and deformation characteristics of the cement matrix in which they are incorporated. The new concept and technology reveal that the engineering advantages of adding fibers in concrete may improve the fracture toughness, fatigue resistance, impact resistance, flexural strength, compressive strength, thermal crack resistance, rebound loss, and so on. The magnitude of the improvement depends upon both the amount and the type of fibers used. In this paper, locally available waste fibers such as coir fibers, sisal fibers and polypropylene fibers have incorporated in concrete with varying percentages and l/d ratio and their effect on compressive, split, flexural, bond and impact resistance have been reported.

• Advanced Composite Materials
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.83-94
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• 2007

Woven sisal textile fiber reinforced composites were used to evaluate fracture toughness, tensile and three-point bending. The water absorption testing of all specimens was repeated five times in this study. All specimens were immersed in pure water during 9 days at room temperature, and dried in 1 day at $50^{\circ}C$. Two kinds of polymer matrices such as epoxy and vinyl-ester were used. Fractured surfaces were taken to study the failure mechanism and fiber/matrix interfacial adhesion. It is shown that it can be enhanced to improve their mechanical performance to reveal the relationship between fracture toughness and water absorption fatigue according to different polymer matrices. Water uptake of the epoxy composites was found to increase with cycle times. Mechanical properties are dramatically affected by the water absorption cycles. Water-absorbed samples showed poor mechanical properties, such as lower values of maximum strength and extreme elongation. The $K_{IC}$ values demonstrated a decrease in inclination with increasing cyclic times of wetting and drying for the epoxy and vinyl-ester.