Investigation of Bamboo Fibrous Tensile Strength Using Modified Weibull Distribution

Yalew Dessalegn; Balkeshwar Singh; Aart W van Vuure; Irfan Anjum Badruddin; Habtamu Beri; Mohamed Hussien; Gulam Mohammed Sayeed Ahmed; Nazia Hossain

doi:10.3390/ma15145016

Investigation of Bamboo Fibrous Tensile Strength Using Modified Weibull Distribution

Materials (Basel). 2022 Jul 19;15(14):5016. doi: 10.3390/ma15145016.

Authors

Yalew Dessalegn¹, Balkeshwar Singh¹, Aart W van Vuure², Irfan Anjum Badruddin³, Habtamu Beri¹, Mohamed Hussien^{4

5}, Gulam Mohammed Sayeed Ahmed^{1

6}, Nazia Hossain⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, Program of Mechanical Design and Manufacturing Engineering, Adama Science and Technology University, Adama 1888, Ethiopia.
² Campus Group T, Composite Materials Group, Department Materials Engineering, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven), Andreas Vesaliusstraat 13, 3000 Leuven, Belgium.
³ Mechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering, King Khalid University, Abha 61421, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, King Khalid University, Abha 61413, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Pesticide Formulation Department, Central Agricultural Pesticide Laboratory, Agricultural Research Center, Dokki, Giza 12618, Egypt.
⁶ Center of Excellence (COE) for Advanced Manufacturing Engineering, Program of Mechanical Design and Manufacturing Engineering, Adama Science and Technology University, Adama 1888, Ethiopia.
⁷ School of Engineering, RMIT University, Melbourne, VIC 3001, Australia.

Abstract

Ethiopia has a large coverage of bamboo plants that are used for furniture making and house building. So far, researchers have not studied the strength of Ethiopian bamboo fibers, which are utilized for composite applications. The current study measured the strength of bamboo fibers based on various testing lengths and calculated the predictive tensile strength using a modified Weibull distribution. Moreover, the quality of the extraction machine is evaluated based on shape and sensitivity parameters. This research paper incorporates the coefficient of variation of the fiber diameters, considering the defects distribution through the length for measuring the predictive strength of the fibers. The fiber diameters were calculated using the area weight methods, which had its density measured using a Pycnometer. It has been examined that as the testing gauge length and coefficient variation of fiber diameter simultaneously increased, the tensile strength of the bamboo fibers decreased. The shape parameter, sensitivity parameter, and characteristic strength of Injibara bamboo (Y. alpina) are 6.02-7.83, 0.63, and 459-642 MPa, whereas Kombolcha bamboo (B. oldhamii) are 5.87-10.21, 0.33, and 408-638 MPa, as well as Mekaneselam bamboo (Y. alpina) are 5.86-9.63, 0.33 and 488-597 MPa, respectively.

Keywords: Weibull distributions; Weibull modulus; bamboo fiber; fiber strength; gauge length.

Grants and funding

RGP. 2/1/43./The authors extend their appreciation to the Deanship of Scientific Research at King Khalid University for funding this work through the Large Groups Project under grant number RGP. 2/1/43.