Wheat Straw Fiber Reinforced Polyurethane Composite

In the present scenario, the demand of natural fibers in composites increases day by day. These fibers are more environmentally friendly and biodegradable than the synthetic fibers. The fiber is utilized in many industrial applications to improve its strength, weight and cost. In this study, wheat straw fiber is used as reinforcement filler to make polyurethane composite. The wheat straw fiber are preferred in two forms, i.e. short and particle fiber. The samples are prepared with the compression process with different filler content. For compression process a dye is designed in such a way that the samples can be removed easily after the compression. The fiber is reinforced with polyurethane at different fiber content i.e. 5%, 10% and 15 %. The aim of this work is to investigate the mechanical properties of the fabricated composite such as flexural test, tensile test and hardness test. To analyze the micro structure of the composite, SEM test is carried out to study the fiber pullout and fracture behavior. The result shows that the wheat straw particles have better mechanical properties than the wheat straw fiber.