Mechanical properties of corn fiber reinforced polypropylene composites using Taguchi method

Abstract In the present study, corn fiber polypropylene (PP) composites were fabricated and tested for their mechanical properties. The effect of matrix modification on mechanical properties is investigated. Maleic anhydride grafted polypropylene (MAPP) is added to matrix and the mechanical properties of MAPP corn fiber composites were found to increase considerably compared with those of PP composites. Experiments were conducted using Taguchi L 12 orthogonal array considering the two deign parameters viz. weight fraction of the fiber and treatment. The experimental results were analyzed using Taguchi optimization method. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was carried out to obtain the significant values of tensile strength, flexural strength and impact strength at 95% confidence level.