Madeha Jabbar

Hydrophobic treatment of natural fibers and their composites—A review:

There is a growing interest in the development of natural fiber-reinforced composites, most likely due to their wide availability, low cost, environment friendliness, and sustainability. The market size for natural fiber-reinforced composites is projected to reach

Effect of woven fabric structure on the air permeability and moisture management properties

5.83 billion by 2019, with a compound annual growth rate of 12.3%. The composite materials reinforced with wood, cotton, jute, flax or other natural fibers fall under this category. Meanwhile, some major factors limiting the large scale production of natural fiber composites include the tendency of natural fiber to absorb water, degradation by microorganisms and sunlight and ultimately low strength and service life. This paper has focused to review the different natural fiber treatments used to reduce the moisture absorption and fiber degradation. The effect of these treatments on the mechanical properties of these composites has also been summarized.

Bioactive woven flax- based composites: Development and characterisation

In this study, six different woven samples were produced on air jet loom with two different weave designs (i.e. 3/1 twill and 1/1 plain), three different picking sequences (i.e. single pick insertion (SPI), double pick insertion (DPI) and three pick insertion (3PI)). All the woven samples were singed, desized, bleached and finished together at industrial scale, as a single lot. The effect of these factors on the wetting, wicking and air permeability (AP) of the fabric samples was analysed. It was revealed that the fabric weave design and picking sequence has statistically significant effect on fabric wetting time, water spreading speed and AP of the fabric. It was found that fabrics woven in twill weave design and with simultaneous 3PI give significantly better AP, shorter wetting time and better water spreading rate as compared to plain woven fabrics and those with double or SPI. It could be concluded that the thermophysiological comfort of woven fabrics may be significantly improved simply by selecting a suitable weave design and picking sequence.

Optimizing the performance of woven protective gloves using grey relational analysis

The natural fibre composites are potential alternative of glass fibre composites for structural applications, automobile and furniture industry, but these are susceptible to the bacterial attack. The current study aims to investigate the bio-functionality of composites using flax woven fabric reinforcement along with ZnO nanoparticles. The ZnO nanoparticles were synthesised by sol–gel method and added in different fractions to unsaturated polyester resin before impregnation of reinforcement. The composites were fabricated by vacuum bag moulding technique, and bioactivity was tested in terms of antibacterial activity (zone of inhibition). The ZnO nanoparticles imparted bioactivity to the composites even in the lowest amount (0.02% by weight). These bioactive composites will help to lower the risk for fibre degradation and enhance the service life of composite, by restricting the growth of bacteria.

Effect of silica nanoparticles on mechanical properties of Kevlar/epoxy hybrid composites

Abstract This study investigates the performance level of different protective gloves produced from woven fabrics, and optimizing their performance using grey relational analysis (GRA). The fabric areal density and poly vinyl chloride (PVC) dotting were the variables used to produce nine different glove samples. The performance of developed gloves was evaluated in terms of abrasion resistance, blade cut resistance, puncture resistance and tear strength. It was concluded that cut and puncture resistance are not affected by dotting type or increase in areal density (GSM). Tear resistance is improved by increasing GSM of the fabric, while abrasion resistance increases with increase in the diameter of dot. The grey relational analysis was performed to optimize the performance of gloves. It was found that the glove produced with 559 GSM fabric and 35 dots/inch2 offered best performance against all responses.

A study on the interdependence of fabric pore size and its mechanical and comfort properties

Abstract The addition of nanofillers in high-performance reinforcement results in the formation of hybrid composites. The objective of this research is to determine the effect of silica nanofillers loading on the mechanical properties of Kevlar/epoxy composites for ballistic use. Produced hybrid composite laminates were tested for flexural properties, tensile Properties and impact energy absorption. DMA analyses were performed to investigate composite properties at elevated temperatures. It was observed that introduction of silica nanofillers enhanced flexural properties, tensile strength, and storage modulus of composites. Impact energy absorption was increased up to a specific extent of nanofiller addition. The findings of this study indicate that introduction of silica nanofillers on Kevlar fabrics is a promising method for enhancing mechanical properties of hybrid composite laminates.

Simultaneous Optimization of Woven Fabric Properties Using Principal Component Analysis

ABSTRACT The study was conducted to investigate the effect of cotton woven fabric pore size on its mechanical and comfort properties. Using 20/1 Ne cotton yarn, 10 fabrics with varying pore size were produced in plain weave for this study. In order to get variable pore sizes, the thread density was changed along warp and weft direction, keeping the linear density of yarn as constant. It was observed that with increase in pore size, air permeability as well as moisture management increased but the thermal resistance decreased. In general, the comfort properties of cotton fabrics were improved with a higher pore size but for applications requiring heat retention, the fabrics having smaller pore sizes must be preferred. It was further observed that the mechanical properties of cotton fabrics do not depend directly on the pore size, rather they depend on the number of threads, in a particular direction. The number of threads may be controlled to get desired pore size and ultimately the desired properties.

Numerical analysis of self-healing composite materials

ABSTRACT The yarn structure and fabric interlacing pattern are determining parameters for fabric properties. The current study focusses on the multi-response optimization of certain fabric properties like shrinkage, areal density, thickness, flexural rigidity, and bending modulus using principal component analysis for optimum properties. Yarn twist (four different levels), fabric weave design (plain and twill), and yarn type (carded and combed) were the variables of the study. The Taguchi approach of the orthogonal array was sued for designing the experiments, and eight different samples were produced. The yarn twist and fabric weave design were found to have significant effect on these properties of the fabric. Furthermore, using analysis of the variance method, contribution% of parameters to these properties was determined.

Effect of fabric structural design on the thermal properties of woven fabrics

For manufacturing of long life and sustainable materials, self-healing composites are an emerging concept. Mixing of resin with microcapsules containing healing agent is the best way to achieve this purpose. Curing of composites during thermal cycle leads to rise in temperature at core due to entrapment of heat of reaction and it may cause degradation of mixed capsules. In the present work thermal stability of microcapsules during fabrication of unidirectional thermoset carbon/epoxy self-healing composite is studied. For this purpose heat transfer coupled with cure kinetics and structural mechanics equation are solved using finite element methods. Analysis of samples, having thickness in the range 2mm-60mm, provides the information if capsules in the composite degrade as well as the quantity of degraded capsules.