Environmental effects on the mechanical and thermomechanical properties of aspen fiber–polypropylene composites

The mechanical properties of newly developed aspen fiber–polypropylene composites (APC) were experimentally explored and numerically predicted at the temperatures and humidity that are typical for domestic housing applications. The mechanical properties of APCs with five different fiber-loadings were evaluated at the room temperature, 4 °C, and 40 °C. Environmental effects on the mechanical properties of APCS were experimentally quantified after conditioning the APCs with two different fiber-loadings in the following temperature and humidity for over 7000 h: (1) hot/dry at 40 °C and 30% relative humidity (RH), (2) hot/wet at 40 °C and 82% RH, (3) cold/dry at 4 °C and 30% RH, and (4) cold/wet at 4 °C and 82% RH. The tensile moduli, flexural moduli, and the flexural strength increased as the woodfiber content increased in the composites. However, the tensile strength decreased as the fiber content increased. The tensile strength was shown to slightly improve with an addition of a coupling agent between the aspen fibers and polypropylene. The simple empirical micromechanics Halpin–Tsai model for randomly distributed short fiber reinforced composites was employed to predict the homogenized elastic moduli of APC, by optimizing the interfacial model parameter. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) micrographs confirmed that an addition of the adhesion promoter maleated anhydride polypropylene (MAPP) between the aspen fibers and polymeric matrix improved the interfacial bonding.