Development of Water Hyacinth Nonwoven Fabrics for Thermal Insulation

Volume 13 Issue 1 August - October 2017

Research Paper

Development of Water Hyacinth Nonwoven Fabrics for Thermal Insulation

M. Bhuvaneshwari*, K. Sangeetha**

* Research Scholar, Department of Textiles and Apparel Design, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India.

** Professor and Head, Department of Textiles and Apparel Design, Bharathiar University, Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India.

Bhuvaneshwari, M., and Sangeetha, K.(2017). Development of Water Hyacinth Nonwoven Fabrics for Thermal Insulatio. i-manager’s Journal on Future Engineering and Technology, 13(1), 22-29. https://doi.org/10.26634/jfet.13.1.13759

Abstract

For the past two decades researchers are working to identify and develop new natural textile fiber sources with eco-friendly manufacturing and sustainability processing. This study investigates the extraction of fibers from water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) plants, its physical, mechanical, and structural properties. The water hyacinth fibers show good strength of about 220.5 g/tex and the fineness of 1.22 g/cm³ are prepared into nonwoven fabrics and their quality for textile applications is analyzed. Nonwoven fabrics are prepared by blending water hyacinth fibers with hemp fibers in three different ratios, such as 75:25, 50:50, and 25:75 for assessing their suitability. The prepared fabrics were analyzed with the effect of blend ratio of water hyacinth fibers for the physical and thermal insulation properties. The result shows that higher the proportion of water hyacinth fibers in the sample, higher the thickness and areal density, and lower the bulk density of the fabric. Further, the increase in the proportion of water hyacinth fibers decreases the thermal conductivity of the fabric and the good thermal resistivity was observed in the sample WH75/H25.