Okwuchi Onyekwere - Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, Federal University Wukari, Taraba State, Nigeria.
Mobolaji Oladeinde - Department of Production Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Benin, Nigeria.
Kindness Uyanga - School of Energy and Environment, City University of Hong Kong, Kowloon, Hong Kong.

There is great interest in application of natural fibres, such as bamboo fibre, as reinforcement in composite production. Herein, to achieve high performance under optimum process conditions, experimental design and optimization techniques are used to investigate the best parameter settings for processing bamboo fibre polyester composites. Single response optimization of the properties of bamboo fibre polyester composites using Taguchi orthogonal array, analysis of variance and Post hoc test was carried out. The test samples comprised of untreated, mercerized, acetylated and mercerized-acetylated bamboo fibre composites at fibre contents of 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 wt %. All composite samples were fabricated using conventional hand lay-up process on randomly oriented long bamboo fibres. It was found that optimum parameter setting for impact strength was achieved at mercerization treatment and 30wt% fibre content with impact strength of 158.23 J/cm. For flexural strength, optimum parameter setting was found to be mercerization treatment at 50 wt % level of fibre content which resulted to flexural strength of 62.7 MPa. The optimum parameter setting for tensile strength is observed at mercerized-acetylation treatment at 50 wt% fibre content with tensile strength of 72.96 MPa. However, no significant difference, (P <.005) was observed in flexural strength, tensile strength and impact strength of mercerized and mercerized-acetylated fibre composites. This study established a research approach to improve bamboo fibre composite properties for more extended applications and to obtain optimal operating conditions by using optimization techniques. It will also serve as a guide for composite manufacturers on parameter settings selection.

Taguchi orthogonal array, Composite, optimization, Fiber modification, mercerized-acetylated