IMPACT PERFORMANCE OF SISAL POLYESTER COMPOSITES

In a previous letter it was reported that a sisal fiber composite exhibits maximum impact toughness owing to the optimum microfibrillar angle of the fiber. In the course of the present study an investigation on the impact properties of sisal composite (unidirectional system) was carried out. The sisal composite shows work of fracture identical with that of an ultra high modulus polyethylene (UHMPE) composite and the toughness is only 25 percent less than that of glass fiber composite when the density of the latter is taken into account. Although the impact performance of the sisal composite is attractive, other mechanical properties are inferior to those of synthetic fiber composites. 4 Refs.