Abstract
Disposing conventional FRPs poses environmentally challenging problem. When FRPs are scrapped by combustion, carbon dioxide is discharged in the air because the resin of FRPs is made of fossil fuel. When they are disposed in the ground, FRPs remain semi-permanently without decomposing. In response to these problem, green composites now being developed and are extensively studied as a material of less environmental burden. In this paper, a pultrusion technique was developed for fabricating green composites composed of PLA (Poly Lactic Acid) or PBS (Poly Butylene Succinate) resin as a matrix and kenaf fibers as reinforcement. Their tensile strengths under the different temperatures were examined. These results were compared with those fabricated with a hot press molding. As a result, the performance of pultrusion method which could continuously fabricate green composites was demonstrated here and their tensile strength and Young's modulus of PLA/kenaf and PBS/kenaf composites were larger than those of both resins alone under the different temperatures. This result showed the reinforcement effect of PLA and PBS by kenaf fibers at the room and the higher temperatures. Furthermore, the tensile strength and Young's modulus with the pultrusion method were larger than those with the hot press method, because the tension applied to the fiber bundles during the pultrusion molding. The heat resistance of the PBS/kenaf composite was higher than that of PLA/kenaf composite. Finally, another shape of green composite was fabricated by using the specimen of pultrusion method and its properties were evaluated.
