Mechanical Strength of Bamboo Fiber Biocomposites Within a Biorefinery Concept

Herberich, Chase; Hanlon, Clayton; McFarland, Terrence; Kayser, Jacob

Student Work

Mechanical Strength of Bamboo Fiber Biocomposites Within a Biorefinery Concept

Public Deposited

A new approach to fiber pretreatment for a bamboo fiber-reinforced composite (BFRC) was utilized and its resultant biocomposites’ strengths were analyzed via tensile and flexural mechanical testing. Co-solvent enhanced lignocellulosic fractionation (CELF) is a biomass pretreatment process that separates cellulose from lignin and hemicellulose in a way that preserves the lignin and hemicellulose rather than destroying them. This allows for further valorization of these components and proves to be a more sustainable pretreatment process for BFRC fabrication. In an effort to make a more sustainable biocomposite, the team found that there was no statistically significant data to prove that incorporation of CELF-treated fibers was more effective than raw bamboo fibers, concluding that CELF-treated fibers performed no worse than the bamboo fiber and epoxy counterparts. Tensile and flexural results were converted to specific strengths and compared to a common building material, 304 stainless steel. The CELF fiber composites’ maximum tensile strength performed at 43.8% of 304 steel, and the maximum flexural strength was found to be 261.1% of 304 steel. It was found that limitations to the strengths of the biocomposite samples arose from random, discontinuous fiber alignment and incomplete degasification of the epoxy resin. Incorporation of a bio-based epoxy in an effort to promote greater sustainability of a biocomposite is suggested for future improvement upon the bamboo fiber reinforced composites fabricated in this study.

This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

Subject

Publisher