Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Applied Composite Materials, 2025 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
This study investigates the effects of alkali treatment, moisture exposure, and thermal cycling on the mechanical properties of woven jute fiber/epoxy composites. The samples were fabricated with a vacuum-assisted resin infusion technique with untreated and alkali-treated (5% NaOH solution – 4 h) jute fibers. Three levels of thermal cycling profile (-5 ℃ – 65 ℃) as low (50 cycles), medium (250 cycles), and high (500 cycles) were applied to samples that were designated as dry and moisture-exposed (120 h water-soaked samples). Tensile, impact, and hardness tests were conducted to understand the mechanical performance of the samples. Experimental results indicate that alkali treatment improves tensile strength by 17.68%, tensile modulus by 6.01%, and elongation at break by 2.85%, primarily due to enhanced fiber-matrix interaction. Impact strength also increased by 16.54% following alkali treatment. However, exposure to moisture and thermal cycling resulted in significant degradation. Moisture-exposed samples showed reductions of 55.54% in tensile strength, 55.58% in impact strength, and 41.46% in hardness, highlighting the detrimental effects of water absorption. Thermal cycling alone caused tensile strength reductions of 29.50% after 500 cycles due to thermal stresses and micro-crack formation. The results indicate that environmental conditions must be considered for jute/epoxy composites, particularly in humid and temperature-variant mediums. In long-term use, the products may be exposed to more severe conditions and thus the design assumptions could mismatch the practical occurrences.