Elaboration and Characterization of a Fiber Composite Material Made of Petioles of the Elaeis guineensis (Oil Palm)

The aim of this study is to characterize physically and mechanically a po-lyester/fiber palm petiole composite material. This work made it possible to provide the local database of composite materials but also to develop agricul-tural waste. According to BSI 2782 standard three formulations [A (10% fiber, 90% polyester); B (20% fiber, 80% polyester) and C (30% fiber, 70% po-lyester)]. Water Absorption rate, density, compressive and three points bending tests are carried out on the samples obtained by the contact molding method for each formulation. The material composite obtained by adding fibers from palm oil petiole has a density of 17.98% lower than the one made of pure polyester. Fiber reinforcement rate has no impact on the density of the composite. Formulation A most absorbs water while formulation C has good ten-sile/compression characteristics and the greatest breaking stress in bending among the three formulations.


Introduction
We are less affected by materials in general, but their use mostly impacts our daily lives [1]. Globally, constant evolution of composite material makes them cheaper, high performing or both. Meanwhile, fiber reinforced composites in-terest increases particularly in cars, aircraft, building manufacturers who seek to integrate ecological and biodegradable materials, due to their interesting mechanical properties, recycling and cost of production [2] [3]. Moreover, composites include/integrate ecological character which is environmental protection and public health interests [4]. The increasing use of plant fibers as reinforcements in composites with thermosetting or thermoplastic matrices provides environmental advantages very interesting [2] [3] [4] [5]. The outstanding characteristics of these fibers are their low cost, low mass, high specific modulus. The interest in these fibers lies in particular in their good specific properties: biodegradability, abundance, character, renewable, have relatively low densities and low cost. Because of their nature and their constitution, palm fibers have a distribution of force; moreover, the percentage of the amorphous and crystalline components of the fiber is determining in the mechanical behavior of the fiber Because of their mechanical characteristics and of the fact that Cameroon has about 83,600 ha of oil palm, palms (petioles and leaves) are the most important waste of these plantations; this waste is most often burned (for the most part) or used as fertilizer. Our work allows us to give another life to this waste, to recover it but also to allow the farmer to earn money. This study aims to determine the physico-mechanical properties of a composite material reinforced with palm oil petiole fibers and will also feed the local database with regards to composite materials.

Process for Obtaining Oil Palm Petiole Fibers
The process for obtaining fibers from oil palm petioles (the Elaeis guineensis) is illustrated in the flowchart of Figure 1.
The petioles were collected in the: Nanga Eboko, a locality in the centre region of Cameroon from a young/five-year-old palm oil trees (the Elaeis guineensis) that produced for the first time. The risk of alteration of the physical and mechanical characteristics by the chemicals, the difficulty of obtaining enzymes and

Formulation and Implementation of Test Pieces
Our samples are made by varying the rate of reinforcement. Table 1 gives the proportions in the formulations adopted.
The proportions of reinforcement, polyester in composite are determined by Equation (1), Equation (2) and Equation (3) respectively:  Table 2 presents the different formulations of the constituents of our material.
Our composite was made with a hardener rate of 1% of the mass of the matrix    [12] for each reinforcement rate.

Preparation of Samples
The test pieces produced according to the recommendations of standard BSI 2782 150 × 10 × 10 mm parallelepipedic block, of regular section [9]. The procedure is in the flowchart given in Figure 4. The samples obtained after demolding are presented in Figure 5.

Volumic Mass
The density of our composite material is given by Equation (4); For each formulation, the experimental density of the composite is obtained by averaging Equation (5) for each test piece [13] [14] [15]. The density of the composite material can also be obtained analytically by using Equation (6).  Following Table 3, the average values of each of the densities obtained for each formulation. This comparative study allowed us to plot the histograms of

Water Absorption Rate
The water absorption rate of this material is given by Equation (7) [16].
We see that formulation A has the highest water absorption rate (6%) it is observed in Formulation B and Formulation C that increasing the fibers proportion reduces the water absorption rate.
In addition, the coordinates of the inflection points for each of the formula-   The comparative study of the average values of the Young's moduli obtained during the compression test allowed us to plot the histogram of Figure 10.

Compression Test This test was carried out with a PERRIER 14570 200 KN press
We notice that: Consequently, the addition of oil palm petiole fibers almost doubles the tensile/compression characteristics of polyester.  It appears that: The composite material (Oil palm petiole/Polyester) has a Young's modulus higher than that of the Sisal/Polyester, Kénaf/Polyester [13], Bamboo/Polyester [15] composite materials; while those of the Linen/Polyester and Jute/Polyester [14] composite materials belong to the interval [3.33; 8.035] (GPa).

Bending Test
The 150 × 10 × 8 mm test pieces were subjected to bending three with a CBR press (CONTROL T1004). The stresses, strains, breaking stresses were deduced from Equation (9), Equation (10) and Equation (11) respectively [17] [18] [19]. The mean values of the transverse modules obtained during the three bending test for each formulation allowed us to make a comparative study on it. Which is presented in the histogram of Figure 12.
From the analysis of the histogram in Figure 12, the following observations emerge: The average values of the three-point bending rupture stresses of the test pieces of each of the formulations allowed us to plot the histogram of Figure 13.
It emerges that, the breaking stress increases proportionally with the rate of fibers reinforcement.