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Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 8548–8557 www.materialstoday.com/proceedings

ICAAMM-2016

Prediction of Swelling Behaviour of Jute and Banana

Fiber Composites by using ANN and Regression Analysis
Satish Pujaria*, Prof. A. Ramakrishnab, Dr. K.T Balaram Padala,b
a*
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Lendi Institute of Engineering and Technology , Vizianagaram,
Andhrapradesh, India.
b
Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering, G.V.P College of Engineering, Visakhapatnam, Andhrapradesh, India.
a,b
Professor , Department of Mechanical Engineering, A.U College of Engineering, Visakhapatnam, Andhrapradesh, India.

Abstract
Jute fibers and banana fibers are the classes of affordable and biodegradable green fibers are being
increasingly used as a substitute for the artificial glass and carbon fibers used in polymer composites.
However, all natural fiber composites absorb water and swell in a moist environment. The objective is
focusing on the determination of physical property of biodegradable and easily disposable natural fiber
reinforced epoxy composites for automotive, household and architectural applications. The Swelling behavior
of composites made from jute and banana fibers and epoxy is presented in this experimental characterization
study. Swelling test is performed by immersing composite specimens into water at room temperature until
absorption becomes constant. The results discuss that jute fiber reinforced composite absorbs less water within
a period of time. The work also reports a comparative analysis of two methodologies for the prediction of
physical property of natural fiber composites. However, ANN gives better result than the regression.

Keywords: Jute fibers, Swelling behavior, Epoxy, Natural fiber composites, Green composites, artificial neural networks,
Regression model, Fuzzy logics.

1. Introduction

Of the various natural fibers jute and banana are of interest to researchers of composite
materials. These are the cheapest and readily available materials. These fibers are very abundant in
India and often inexpensive as compared to other relatively advanced man-made fibers, like glass.
The environment related advantages of natural fibers include recyclability, renewability,
biodegradability, CO2 sequestration, and reduced dermal and respiratory irritation. The advantages
associated with their usage in polymer composites include ease in processing, non-abrasion, low
* Satish pujari. Tel.: 919885008004.
E-mail address: satish_venkat_2000@yahoo.com

2214-7853 © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Selection and Peer-review under responsibility of the Committee Members of International Conference on
Advancements in Aeromechanical Materials for Manufacturing (ICAAMM-2016).
 Satish Pujari / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 8548–8557 8549

energy consumption, low density, and low costs [1, 2]. Natural fiber composites combine plant-
derived fibers with a plastic binder. The natural fiber components may be wood, sisal, hemp,
coconut, cotton, kenaf, flax, jute, abaca, banana leaf fibers, bamboo, wheat straw or other fibrous
material. The use of natural fibers reduces weight by 10% and lowers the energy needed for
production by 80%, while the cost of the component is 5% lower than the comparable fiber glass-
reinforced component [3]. In the past, composites of coconut fiber/natural rubber latex were
extensively used by the automotive industry. However, during the 70’s and 80’s, newly developed
synthetic fibers, due to better performance; gradually substituted cellulose fibers. For the past few
years, there has been a renewed interest in using these fibers as reinforcement materials, to some
extent in the plastic industry. This resurgence of interest may be attributed to the increasing cost of
plastics and the environmental aspects associated with using renewable and biodegradable materials
[4].
The natural fibers have additional advantages of being easily available and of being
producible through recycling of plant materials [5-6]. Because of these, natural fibers can be a
potential substitute for the traditional man-made fibers. However, natural fibers have few
disadvantages such as high moisture absorption, swelling, limited compatibility with some
thermoplastic matrices, low processing temperature, low thermal stability, poor mechanical
properties, high biodegradability when exposed to environment, and low dimensional stability [7-
9]. The moisture absorption, by composites containing natural fibers, has several adverse effects on
their properties and thus, affects their long-term performance. For example, increased moisture
causes the fibers to swell, decreases their mechanical properties, providing the necessary conditions
for biodegradation, and changes their dimensions [10]. Therefore, it is important to study the
moisture absorption and swelling behavior of natural fiber composites in order to estimate the
consequent effects on the performance of composite parts. Such studies enable us to develop
strategies for controlling and minimizing moisture absorption. Several researchers studied the
swelling and moisture absorption in hybrid jute composites or jute–polyester composites [11-15].
Several research works have been reported on effect of water absorption in natural fiber-reinforced
composites, such as bamboo–glass fiber, sisal, flax pineapple leaf fiber, jute, short roselle and sisal
fiber and bamboo fiber, which shows the relevancy of the subject. Presence of moisture in the
natural composites would lower the flexural strength, tensile strength, and other mechanical
properties of the composites system [16-20]
. Authors published Comparative analysis of regression and ANN models for predicting
drape coefficient of handloom fabrics [22]. The aim of this work is to compare the ANN and
regression models for predicting the water absorption properties of jute and banana fiber
composites. Values obtained from the experiment are interpolated by fuzzy and those values are
used in ANN and regression models, where the R2 values obtained are compared and the best
model is declared. Also the performance of the ANNs and the correlation-based method are
compared for various foundation configurations. The most important conclusion of the study is that
ANNs offer an accurate method for predicting daily foundation heat loss/gain [23].

2. Experimental

2.1 Materials

Jute fibers (Corchorus olitorius) were supplied by local industry in Visakhapatnam .Banana fibers
(Musa ulugurensis warb) were acquired from a local industry in Visakhapatnam, India. These
Collected fibers were treated with alkali and later process of neutralization was done by treating the
fiber with 5% acetic acid solution, treated as raw sample in this study. Epoxy resin (Araldite LY
8550 Satish Pujari / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 8548–8557

556) made by CIBA GUGYE Limited. Was used as matrix and its curing characteristics were
enhanced by the use of 2% of hardener 0.5% of Accelerator. (Hardener (araldite) HY 951 is used).

2.2 Alkali Treatment

The jute and Banana fibers were cut to 60cm of length and soaked in a 5% of NaOH solution
separately at 300C for 4 hours. The fibers were then washed several times with distilled water to
remove any NaOH sticking to the fiber surface, neutralizing it with dilute acetic acid and washed
again with distilled water. Final PH value maintained was 7. The fibers were then dried at room
temperature for 48h, followed by oven drying at 1000C for 6h for the removal of moisture content.

2.3 Composite Fabrication

The matrix materials were prepared from epoxy resin LY 556, hardener and accelerator in a weight
ratio of 1:0.02:0.005 respectively. The rows were layered by hand layup technique in parallel rows
with the reference horizontal side of sheet respectively. Each layer of the fiber were pre-
impregnated with matrix materials and placed one over the other in the mould, to maintain
practically achievable tolerances on fiber alignment. Arrangements were made to avoid the leakage
of matrix material by keeping the two opposite ends open to allow hot air to escape during curing at
room temperature for minimum of 24 hours and post curing by oven heating at 600 for 8 hours. In
this way any number of fiber layers can be layered as per required dimensions for Jute and Banana
fibers separately. The composites were prepared with 20%, 40% and 60% volume fraction of fiber
as shown in Fig 1 and Fig 2.

Fig 1: Swelling test jute fiber composite specimens for different volume fractions of fiber

Fig 2: Swelling test Banana fiber composite specimens for different volume fractions of fiber
 Satish Pujari / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 8548–8557 8551

2.4 Swelling test

About 60% of the fibers were made of cellulose which is the main cause of swelling [19, 20]. The
specimens were prepared according to the ASTMD 570 [21] standards. The distilled water was
used in the swelling tests.The following equation was used to calculate the Swelling coefficient.
Swelling coefficient = *100
Where and are the initial and final thickness values of the composites, respectively.
Comparative analysis of ANN and Regression models are also done in this article for predicting the
Swelling coefficients of jute and banana fiber composites.

3. Results and Discussions

In this study we are to optimize and report the effect of the parameters such as volume
fraction and swelling coefficient for different materials like jute and banana fiber composites. Two
different methods used in this research are regression and artificial neural network. Table 1
represents swelling coefficient values for five different volume fractions of jute fiber composites
obtained from swelling test, which shows that, the volume fraction of fiber increases the swelling
coefficient of the composite also increases. Table 2 represents the swelling coefficient values for
different volume fractions of the jute fiber which are interpolated from the values obtained by tests
by using Fuzzy techniques. Table 3 the represents swelling coefficient values for five different
volume fractions of Banana fiber composites obtained from swelling test. Table 4 represents the
swelling coefficient values for different volume fractions of the banana fiber which are interpolated
from the values obtained by tests by using Fuzzy techniques.
Comparison of swelling values for jute and banana fiber composites for different volume
fractions of fibers is represented in Fig 3. The trends of the graph indicates that jute fiber
composites having less swelling capacity comparatively with banana fiber composites for
corresponding volume fractions of the fibers.
Comparison of experimental data and regression values for volume fraction of jute and
banana fiber composites were demonstrated in Fig 4 and Fig 6. The predictions of trained ANN for
volume fraction of fiber, the solutions of the experimental ones for jute fiber composites
demonstrated in Fig 5 and for Banana fiber composites in Fig 7. The performances of ANN and
regression analysis were evaluated between predicted and experimental values. The ANN
predictions produce the statistical coefficient of multiple determinations (R2) in the range of 0.67
for jute fiber composites and 0.95 for the banana fiber composites. The regression predictions
produce R2 values are 0.64 for jute fiber composites and 0.90 for banana fiber composites.

Table 1: Swelling coefficient values of jute fiber composites obtained from tests

Volume fraction (%) 0 20 40 60 100

Swelling coefficient 1.22 1.53 8.42 5.13 4.93

Table 2: Swelling coefficient values of jute fiber composites interpolated from Fuzzy techniques

Volume fraction (%) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Swelling coefficient 1.22 1.39 1.53 5.1 8.42 6.8 5.13 4.8 4.7 4.9 4.93
8552 Satish Pujari / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 8548–8557

Table 3: Swelling coefficient values of Banana fiber composites obtained from tests

Volume fraction (%) 0 20 40 60 100

Swelling coefficient 1.22 3.28 2.01 6.2 6.87

Table 4: Swelling coefficient values of Banana fiber composites interpolated from Fuzzy techniques

Volume fraction (%) 0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

Swelling Coefficient 1.22 1.93 3.28 2.35 2.01 4.33 6.2 6.59 6.76 6.83 6.87

Fig 3: Comparison of swelling curves of Jute and Banana fiber composites for different Volume fractions of fiber
 Satish Pujari / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 8548–8557 8553

Fig 4: Comparison of experimental data and Regression predicted swelling test values of Jute fiber composites

Fig 5: Comparison of experimental data and ANN predicted swelling test values of Jute fiber composites
8554 Satish Pujari / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 8548–8557

Fig 6: Comparison of Experimental data and Regression predicted swelling test values of banana fiber composites

Fig 7: Comparison of Experimental data and ANN predicted swelling test values of Banana fiber composites
 Satish Pujari / Materials Today: Proceedings 4 (2017) 8548–8557 8555

4. Conclusions

This paper presents jute fiber and Banana fiber composite specimen with different volume fractions
of jute and banana fibers. The swelling test was done on the specimens and the measured data were
studied. This paper also presents an application of the regression analysis and artificial neural
networks in order to optimize the swelling coefficient of jute and banana fiber composites based on
the volume fraction of the fibers. The principal conclusions are as follows.
• All specimens showed a high rate of swelling at the beginning of the wetting test, but the rate
of swelling decreased asymptotically with time and finally gets constant.
• A comparison of evolution of swelling in the composites specimens is studied. After 504hrs,
the swelling coefficient for composites with 20% jute and banana fiber composites are 1.53%
and 3.28% respectively. At the same time, swelling coefficient for composites with 40% jute
and banana fibers are 8.42% and 2.01% respectively. And for 60% jute and banana fiber
composites they are 5.13% and 6.2% respectively. On the other hand, it conclusively shows
that the swelling coefficient increases for jute fiber composites from 20% volume fraction of
fiber to 40% volume fraction of fiber and decreases from 40% to 60%. But for banana fiber
composites the swelling coefficient decrease first and then increases till 60% volume fraction
of fiber.
• The performances of ANN and regression analysis were evaluated between predicted and
experimental values. The ANN predictions produce the statistical coefficient of multiple
determinations (R2) in the range of 0.67 for jute fiber composites and 0.95 for the banana fiber
composites. The regression predictions produce R2 values as 0.64 for jute fiber composites and
0.90 for banana fiber composites. ANN model is capable of predicting the absorption
coefficient with a very high degree of accuracy, which concludes that the prediction accuracy
of ANN models is much better than that of regression models.
• This study helps application engineers determine the swelling coefficient of the natural fiber
composites easily without exhaustive experiments, thus saving money and time.

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