Comparative study on mechanical properties of banana-glass fiber reinforced epoxy hybrid composites

Abstract

Hybrid composite materials are extensively used in both household and industrials applications nowadays. Natural or synthetic fibers may be used as reinforcement in reinforced plastics. Despite the fact that synthetic fibers have a high mechanical strength, their application fields are extremely limited due to their higher manufacturing costs. In this regard, an experiment was conducted to determine the viability of producing hybrid composites that retain both their properties and enhanced mechanical properties. In this work the effect of banana and glass fiber with epoxy resin as matrix is studied by forming hybrid composites. Here, continuous banana fiber is used with randomly oriented CSM glass fiber of 450 GSM, alongside treating banana fiber by NaOH. The treated and untreated banana fiber samples were prepared along with pure epoxy resin and glass fiber. The percentages of fiber by weight volume in the treated and untreated samples were maintained at 20%, 30%, and 40% respectively. The mechanical tests were performed and found out that 40 wt% treated fiber consistently outperformed the untreated fiber in every test. From the results, 40 wt% treated fiber and untreated had the tensile strength as 57.8 MPa and 41.8 MPa respectively, flexural strength as 117.54 MPa and 99.08 MPa respectively, Shore D hardness as 81 and 71.2 respectively, and the impact energy found out was 8 J and 5 J respectively. The water absorption test revealed that untreated fiber can take in more liquid than treated fiber. Lastly, the SEM image analysis showed the reasons for the difference in the treated and untreated composite’s obtained mechanical strength and water absorption. Moreover, from the tested results these hybrid composites can be used as an alternative for many conventional materials such as at household items in case of making storage boxes, shielding roofs, benches, also in industry by making ecofriendly durable helmets.