Page 47 - Template Tesis UTM v2.0

2.5.3 Aramid Fibre

Aramid fibres were commercially introduced in the early 1970s by E.I. Du Pont

de Nemours & Company, Inc., under the trade name of Kevlar. Aramid fibres exhibit

distinctive characteristics such as light weight and have high strength and toughness.
This has led to the fibres’ applications in composites for pressure vessels, ship

building, heat resistance attire, fire blankets, reinforcement for high-speed tyre,

bulletproof vests, vehicle protection, and as fabric for aircraft and containers. The
properties of aramid fibres are shown in Table 2.4.

Table 2.4 Properties of aramid fibres [30]

Young Tensile Tensile
Density Diameter No. of
Material Modulus, strength elongation
3
(g/cm ) (µm) yarn
E (GPa) (GPa) (%)
Kevlar 29
(high 1.44 12 83 3.6 4.0 134-10k
toughness)

Kevlar 49
(high 1.44 12 131 3.6-4.1 2.8 25-5k
modulus)
Kevlar 149
(ultrahigh 1.47 12 179 3.4 2.0 1k
modulus)

2.6 Natural Fibre-Reinforcements

Composites could be further classified into synthetic fibre reinforced

composites and natural fibre reinforced composites. In this regard, while most

composite materials use synthetic fibres such as carbon or glass, in recent years, the
use of natural fibres have garnered the attention of the researchers and practitioners in

the composite industry due to their potential as a replacement for the costlier of
synthetic fibres. Natural fibres are classified based on their origins either from plant or

animal; plant-based natural fibres include jute, flax, kenaf, coir, sisal, hemp, bagasse
and bamboo, while animal-based fibres are silk, wool and feather. Figure 2.5 shows

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