The paper presents the effect of CaCO3 content on the tensile, flexural and water absorption properties of bamboo fiber/polystyrene-modified unsaturated polyester composites. Two volume fractions of bamboo fibers had been used with the CaCO3 content varied from 2.5 to 10 (wt%). The tensile and flexural properties were used to characterize the composites. In addition, the water absorption and its effect of the flexural properties had also been conducted. The results showed that at the bamboo content of 30%, adding CaCO3 up to 10wt% tended to decrease the tensile strength and elastic modulus of bamboo fiber/modified unsaturated polyester composites up to 27% and 4%, respectively; however, at the bamboo content of 20%, its effect was not significant for both the tensile strength and the elastic modulus. Adding CaCO3 seemed not to have a significant effect for both the flexural strength and modulus. Having exposed in distilled water, CaCO3 did not significantly affect the water uptakes and the flexural properties of bamboo fiber/modified unsaturated polyester composites; however, the flexural strength and modulus significantly decreased in the ranges of 24 - 45% and 36 - 43%, respectively, compared to those in dry condition.
The paper presents the effect of fiber length on the mechanical properties and water absorption of bamboo fiber/polystyrene-modified unsaturated polyester composites. The fiber length varied from 2.5 mm to 15 mm at the fiber volume fraction of 0.2, 0.25 and 0.3. For water absorption, the specimens were immersed in distilled water at temperature of 40°C. The results showed that for all volume fractions, the tensile, flexural, and the impact properties tended to increase with the increase of fiber length; however, there was an optimum fiber length for the tensile and flexural properties. The water uptake increased with the increase of both fiber length and volume fraction. In wet condition, for all volume fractions, the flexural properties degraded, whereas, the impact strength did not indicate degradation, even; it significantly increased for all fiber lengths.
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