Experimental Investigation on the Mechanical Properties of Indian Almond Fiber - Reinforced Composites Prepared by Different Types of Resins

Abstract

ABSTRACT Natural composites are attracted in several engineering applications due to its light weight and environment-friendly nature. This research was intended to investigate the influence of resin type on the mechanical properties of composites. For that, Indian almond fiber-based composites were fabricated using different types of resins and the effect of resin on the mechanical properties of composites was investigated. Totally, three composites such as Polylactic acid (PLA)/Indian almond, Epoxy/Indian almond and Polypropylene (PP)/Indian almond were manufactured by compression molding method. Mechanical properties such as tensile, flexural, impact and hardness were analyzed. Results showed that PLA/Indian almond composite showed the maximum tensile strength of 70 MPa and flexural strength of 117 MPa due to the presence of stiffer PLA resin. PP/Indian almond composite exhibited the higher elongation of 3.83% due to the ductile nature of PP resin. Further, greater impact strength of 5.11 kJ/m2 was noted for PLA/Indian almond composite owing to more energy absorption. Moreover, PLA/Indian almond composite displayed the higher hardness of 90 shore-D. Hence, this research suggests that the PLA resin is better than the epoxy and PP in the improvement of properties of composites. Further, the PLA/Indian almond composite could be used in the structural applications because of its better performance.