Experimental Study on Mechanical, Chemical and Acoustical Properties of Waste Tea Leaf Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Composites

Abstract

Fibre reinforced polymer composites are employed instead of metal and wood because they are stronger, more lightweight, have a favourable strength to weight ratio, and are noncorrosive. In the current research, sisal, carbon fibre, and industrial waste tea leaf fibre (WTLF) reinforced hybrid epoxy composites are being examined for their chemical, mechanical and acoustical properties with experimental study. The sisal and WTLF were chemically treated with 5% sodium hydroxide (NaOH) solution. By modifying the weight percentage of sisal and WTLF with a structure of 40 weight percent fibre and 60 weight percent matrix, five different compositions of natural fibre reinforced hybrid composites were fabricated using an automatic compression moulding technique. As per the ASTM standard the manufactured hybrid composites are tested for mechanical, chemical and acoustic characteristics. According to the experimental findings, sisal fibre with a 25 wt% and WTLF with a 5 wt% demonstrated superior mechanical properties, while these materials also demonstrated an excellent acoustic absorption coefficient (AAC) of 0.62 between the frequency range of 2000 to 6300 Hz. The morphology of failure samples revealed the matrix micro crack, void formation, fiber pullout and layers of fractured fibers which are being examined using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM). The superior bonding between fibre and matrix was seen in the FTIR study of 5% alkali treated composites.