Assessing of Mechanical Properties of Natural Fiber Reinforced Polymer Matrix Hybrid Composites

Abstract

An experimental analysis has been carried out to investigate the mechanical properties of composites reinforced by sisal, coir, and banana fibres into epoxy resin matrix. The natural fibres were extracted by retting and manual processes. The composites fabricated by epoxy resin and reinforcement in the hybrid combination of Sisal-Banana and Sisal-Coir with the volume fraction of fibres varying from 5% to 30%. It has been identified that the mechanical properties increase with the increase of volume fraction of fibres to a certain extent and then decreases. The hybridization of the reinforcement in the composite shows greater mechanical properties when compared to individual type of natural fibres reinforced. For all the composites tested, the tensile strength of the composite increased up to 25% of volume fraction of the fibres and further for the increase in the volume fraction of fibre the mechanical properties were decreased. As same as tensile properties, the flexural and impact strength also increased linearly up to 25% of volume fraction of fibres and further for the increase in the volume fraction of fibre the mechanical properties were slightly decreased. Key Words: Sisal, Banana, Coir, Epoxy, Hybrid composite.