Predicting the Tensile Modulus of Randomly Oriented Nonwoven Kenaf/ Epoxy Composites

As there has been an increasing trend in using nonwovensnatural fiber in composites, there is a need to find good micromechanical models to represent their behavior. In this study, randomly oriented nonwoven kenaf/ epoxy composites at various fiber loading has been fabricated by using resin transfer moulding (RTM) method. Experimental results show that increasing the fiber loading has led to the increment of tensile modulus. The validity of rule of mixtures (ROM) and modified rule of mixtures (MROM) which includes model by Krenchel and Nairn has also been analyzed. ROM has failed to predict the tensile modulus of the composites. Meanwhile, MROM managed to produce an accurate tensile modulus prediction due the inclusion of fiber length factor by Nairn model and fiber orientation factor by Krenchel model. (C) 2016 Published by Elsevier B.V.