Abstract
Abstract 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.