How to determine the tensile strength of plant fibres

practically?
Aim
The purpose of this investigation is to find out through a well planned experiment
the tensile strength of plant fibres.

Introduction
Plant fibres are a range of ‘fibre-like’ structures that include long, stretched, thick
and lignified cell walled tubes which can be used for different purposes depending
on their properties such as linen and cotton for clothing, ropes, sacking, paper and
cardboard. The cell wall of the plant fibres made up of a net-like arrangement of
cellulose microfribils which strengthens to the plant fibres. Sclerenchyma fibres that
are present in plant fibres form secondary cell wall which are dead cells with lignin
which strengthen the plant fibres even more. The xylem and phloem are also
responsible for plant fibres’ thick cell wall and hardness due to the lignin on the
outer part of their vessels.

Retting is a process in the manufacturing of vegetable fibres, especially the bast

fibres that involves water and microbial action to separate the bast fibres from the
woody core (the xylem), and sometimes from the epidermis as well. It is a way of
removing fibres from plant stems. Retting can be done by letting the crop that is cut
or pulled up to stand in the fields in the wet Fall, called "dew retting". Bacterial
action attacks pectin and lignin leaving the cellulose intact so that the cellulose-rich
fibres are easy to remove. This process can be a very labour-intensive process due
to the monitoring of the stems during retting that needs to be done to avoid
excessive deterioration of the fibres. The tensile strength which is the amount of
tensile stress that the removed fibres can cope before it breaks is measured.
Through this the different suitable uses of the fibre can be figured like ropes for
climbing could be made from a plant fibre which has a certain amount of stress
tolerant for it to be suitable to carry a person.

Variables:
• Independent: Plant
• Dependent: Mass
• Control: Thickness of each plant fibre, length of each plant fibre, the way the
mass was hung for each plant fibre.

Equipment:
1. Scalpel or razor blade
2. Forceps
3. Leaf of a monocotyledon
4. Clamp
5. Clamp stand
6. Mass
7. Rubber tubes
8. Foams
9. Bulldog clips
Investigation 1: Trial
Method
1. Carefully scrap the surface layer of tissue from each side of the leaf using just
fingernails, razor blade or scalpels.
2. Separate the fibres using forceps.
3. Set the clamp and the clamp stand by attaching the clamp to a clamp stand
with the clamp stand placing vertically on a table.
4. Place the thick foams or cloth under where the masses will be hung on the
plant fibres.
5. Make a loop on one end of the fibre where the masses can be hung.
6. Put the other end of the plant fibre through a rubber tube and bend it. Using
a bulldog clip, clip this bent rubber tube with the fibre still inside.
7. Clamp the bulldog clipped end of the fibre on the clamp.
8. Hang the masses on the loop until the plant fibre breaks.
9. Repeat the experiment 3 times with different samples of the same fibre.

Investigation 1: Trial - Results

Plant Mass held by the plant
Fibre fibre until it snapped/ g
1 350
2 300

This was the trial method. The flaws of this method included the loop of the plant
fibre being undone as we added masses which were misinterpreted as it looked like
the plant fibre had snapped due to the masses instead. This caused the results to
be inaccurate as the real tensile strength of the plant fibre was not recorded.
Therefore the results were much lower compare to the results from the
investigation after the trial. The masses that were hung on the loop each time were
not specified. This meant that the masses that were hung varied every time and
was done randomly. This caused errors the masses were irregularly hung on to the
plant fibre instead of steadily which meant that the results that were recorded
didn’t correspond to the actual mass that the plant fibre could’ve actually held.
Also with this method the length of the plant fibres were not recorded which meant
that the lengths varied making the results biased.

Investigation 2:
Method
1. Carefully scrap the surface layer of tissue from each side of the leaf using just
fingernails, razor blade or scalpels.
2. Separate the fibres using forceps.
3. Set the clamp and the clamp stand by attaching the clamp to a clamp stand
with the clamp stand placing vertically on a table.
4. Place the thick foams or cloth under where the masses will be hung on the
plant fibres.
5. Cut the plant fibres so that they are the same length.
6. Put one end of the plant fibre through a rubber tube and bend it. Clip this
bent rubber tube with the fibre still inside. Do the same for the other end of
the plant fibre.
7. Hang the clip on the clamp.
 8. Hang the mass on the bottom clip in intervals of 100g until the plant fibre
breaks.
9. Repeat the experiment 3 times with different samples of the same fibre.

Risk Assessment
1. Take care when using a scalpel or razor blade. If an accident does occur
inform the teacher immediately.
2. Take care when using the masses. Make sure there are thick foams or cloth
placed for the masses to fall into which will absorb the force of the falling
mass so that there is no accident when the plant fibre snaps and the masses
fall. If an accident does occur inform the teacher immediately.

Investigation 2 - Results
Plant Mass held by the fibre before
Fibre it snapped/g
1 500
2 700
3 500
4 600
5 700
STDEV 100

Conclusion
The mass that the plant fibres can hold until they snap is between 500g to 700g.
This shows that the extracted fibres are reasonably strong. The fiber bundles break
in the middle not beside the clamping areas which shows that fiber strength is not
being influenced by the testing apparatus. The graph generated from the table of
results from investigation 2 doesn’t seem to follow a trend. As the fibres were of
same length, this didn’t affect the mass that they held before they snapped. This
shows that the length of the plant fibres doesn’t affect their strength. An intact stem
has less flexibility therefore fibres are stronger than an intact stem as they are
flexible which avoid them from breaking easily unlike the stem they will stretch
instead. This is also because the fibres are cellulose rich which means that they will
have more strength as cellulose is responsible for making the plant fibres intact.
Therefore this draws a conclusion that the more cellulose rich a plant fibre is the
more intact they are therefore they are harder to break due to this component in
them.

Evaluation
The second investigation that was carried out after the trial investigation was
improved in various ways. The method now included two bulldog clips to clip both
ends of the plant fibre once they were put through the rubber tube to ensure that
there wasn’t any error in performing the procedure as there was in the previous
investigation where the loop was undone as the mass was put on and this was
misjudged by thinking that the plant fibre had actually snapped but truly it hadn’t.
Now that there were bulldog clips on both ends that means that the plant fibres are
more secure and so as more mass was hung the plant actually broke or snapped
when it held a certain amount of mass. The way that the mass was hung on to the
plant fibre was also done steadily this time round and in intervals of 100g every time
which meant that the results now would be more valid. Also the length of the plant
fibres this time round were recorded as the same length therefore this caused the
results to be more valid.