Abstract:
The consumption of papers in various applications has been increased rapidly during the past
decades. To produce one ton of paper; 12 trees, 540 000 liters of water, fuel consumption for
transporting the trees are used whereas 10 liters of water is needed to make one A4 paper. Thus,
during paper production natural resources are enormously utilized as well as many chemicals are
involved in the process. Therefore, this study was conducted to design a wastepaper-based
composite with natural fiber as reinforcement. Jute, coir, silk, and wool fibers selected as
reinforcement and the study was carried out using simulation in SOLIDWORKS software. Among
the selected fibers jute fibers showed better properties and therefore it was selected for composites
simulations.
Firstly, volume fraction was calculated, and the critical volume fraction was determined. Critical
fiber volume fraction was nearly 0.23. Then the fiber volume fraction was optimized using
COMSOL Multiphysics software. The periodicity boundary condition and rule of mixture
techniques were used to compare and obtained the most suitable fiber volume fraction. The
optimized fiber volume fraction was 0.4. Thereafter the micromechanics analysis of a unit cell was
carried out with the most suitable fiber volume fraction. The elasticity matrix was obtained for the
material. Finally, the stress analysis of the composite was done by applying a 100N load on the
composite, which was fixed from four edges. The longitudinal elastic modulus obtained was
8.0726GPa with a thickness of 0.4mm and a Grammage of 488.92 gm-2. Thus, a natural fiber
composite with wastepaper can be produced with most suitable fiber volume fraction of 0.4 with
numerical analysis methods.
Citation:
Madushani, R.K., Dilhari, B.A., & Udayakumara, S.V. (2021). Design of natural fiber and wastepaper composite using numerical analysis method [Abstract]. In A.A.G.A. Abeygunawardane (Ed.), Innovative materials through mathematical modeling and simulations (p. 2). Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Moratuwa.