The Investigation To Determine The Tensile Strength Of Plant Fibre And Compares It To Tensile Strength Of Concrete

I/ Introduction Fibres have been extracted from plant stems for centuries and used in the commercial manufacture of a wide range of textiles and paper. The term fibres is used to describe a range of fibres-like structures, not just the scherenchyma. The used of different fibres depend on ther properties( table 1).
Figure 1 PLant fibre

Useful part of the plant Applications Stem of flax plant Linen for clothing. Hairs on the seeds of a plant belonging to Cotton for clothing. the mallow family. Hemp Fibres from the stem/leaves of the hemp Used for roped and plant. carpet-backing Coir Fibre from the husks of the fruit of the Floor coverings, ropes. coconut. Manila Hard fibres from the leaves of a type of Marine cables and other banana. ropes, net and matting. Table1 : The uses of plant fibre Tensile strength is the maximum stress caused by a pulling force that a material can withstand without falling. Concrete has a tensile strength of 2x106Nm-2-. This experiment is carry out to measure the tensile strength of nettle fibres and compare it to the strength fibres of concrete. II/Prediction Nettle fibres have higher tensile strength than concrete. III/Equipment Stems of nettles Bucket or bowl. Rubber gloves Scissors Paper towerls Eye protection Ruler Clamp stand

Fibre Flax Cotton

Masses (100g)

III/ Safety Put all stuff away and leave enough space to work. Wear eyes protection and gloves when handling the plant material. Wash your hands after handing the soaked material. When testing fibres to breaking point, make sure the loads on the material can fall without causing injury.

III/Method A/Extracting fibres from plant stem ( retting) 1. Remove leaves and any flowers from stems of plants are removed using scissors. 2. The stems are then place in a bowl and let them fully immerse in water. 3. The stems are then left soaked for a week. 4. Stems are removed from water after a week and washed to remove softened tissue and fungus. 5. The stem is rubbed by hand gently under running tap water to remove stem tissues around bundle and extract the fibres. 6. The fibres are separated using hands into single fibres. 7. Dry the fibres 8. The outside cuticle and epidermal layer will rub away and the central pith will be left when the fibres are peeled away. B/ Measuring the tensil strength 1. A strand of dried fibre is cut into 3 cm long 2. Attach the fibre to a clamp stand and hang a weight (100g) from the other end. 3. Keep adding weights , one at a time, until the fibre breaks. 4. Record the mass needed to break the fibre ( the higher the mass, the higher the tensile strength. 5. Repeat the experiment with different samples of the same fibre with the same length. 6. Throughout the experiment all other variables, like temperature and humidity, must be keep constant. IV/ Result Fibre sample Length (cm) Mass which caused fibre to break(g) 1 3 2 3 3 3 4 3 Average 3