A review on the physical and mechanical properties of natural fiber reinforced composites and its machinability using abrasive waterjet machining

Abstract

In recent years greater concern is being shared between different research and engineering communities for developing eco-friendly engineering materials. Natural fiber reinforced composites (NFRC) are one of the highly explored materials which are drawing the interests due to the numerous advantages they offer. Today most of the research are focused on replacing the synthetic fibers by natural fibers as they are abundant, lower cost, biodegradable and show good mechanical properties. The NFRC are majorly used in automobile, aerospace and civil applications. One of the problems associated with natural materials is their machinability. The traditional machining of NFRC poses various challenges such as delamination, lower precision, cracks, higher surface roughness etc. Therefore, it is necessary to identify sustainable machining techniques for natural materials. Abrasive waterjet machining (AWJM) is one of the most viable non-traditional machining methods and its efficiency in machining NFRC is higher compared to other non-traditional machining techniques. Therefore, in this article a detailed review is conducted to understand the different natural fibers utilized for the fabrication of composite. Also, their mechanical properties (MP) and applications in different industries are detailed. In addition, the effect of AWJM parameters on the machinability of NFRC and optimum process parameters for achieving better machining quality in NFRC are discussed.