Development of a Hybrid Coconut Fibre and Multi Reinforcement Epoxy Composite for High Impact Strength

Abstract

The use of natural fibers as reinforcement in polymer composite materials provides several advantages due to its low density, biodegradable, easily recycled, low price and able to be renewed. To improve the mechanical properties of composites reinforced natural fibres, it needs to substitute with a type of synthetic reinforcement. The purpose of this study was to obtain the impact characteristics of epoxy composite hybrids through multi reinforcement. The hybrid composites fabricated by three variations, namely variation I (Coconut fibre + Eglass + Fabric + Rubber), variation II (Coconut fibre + Eglass-Fabric), and variation III (Coconut fiber + Eglass + Rubber). Short coconut fibre is produced by fibrillation process. Hand layup process was used to prepare the specimens. In each variation, the first layer consists of coir+ Epoxy + Alumina. Impact test is performed to determine the mechanical properties. The results showed that the variation 1 had the highest impact strength of 58.02 kJ/m2 while the lowest impact strength in the variation II, which is 41.13 kJ/m2. The fracture occurred in the form of brittle fracture.