Effects of Performance on Mechanical Properties of Sawdust/Carbon Fibre Reinforced Polymer Matrix Hybrid Composites

Abstract

Short carbon fibre (CF) and sawdust (SD) were dispersed in to the epoxy (EP) matrix in order to manufacture polymer hybrid composites using compression moulding technique. The mechanical properties of flexural properties of hybrid, compression moulded, chopped CF/SD/epoxy composites have been investigated taking into account the effect of hybridization by these two fillers. Hybridization with small amounts of SD makes these CF composites more suitable for technical applications. The simultaneous compounding of epoxy with two fillers was done to obtain a hybrid composite. This system is expected to have considerable mechanical properties, good surface finish and low cost. It has been found that the tensile properties of filled epoxy were higher than unfilled epoxy. By incorporating up to 30% (by mass) Carbon fiber (CF) and 10% sawdust (SD) namely S3 sample flexural strength was increased by 12.5%. Thus it is shown that the durability of CF/SD filled epoxy composites can be enhanced by hybridization with small amount of CF. The hybrid effects of the flexural strength and modulus were studied by the rule of hybrid mixture.