Mechanical property evaluation of elephant dung fiber based epoxy composites

Abstract

Natural fibers extracted from different sources and their engineering applications have been a subject of interest for many years now and researchers have found a wide range of useful applications. Studies related to fibers extracted from animal waste are slowly gaining momentum along with the concept of recycling and sustainable development. Plywood manufacturing is an often-criticized process for the environmental impacts they create, owing to which many alternative solutions and products are being thought of and are finding their way to the market. Natural fiber reinforced polymer composites (NFPC) with suitable chemical treatments have even found their applications where there is a greater demand for fire-retardant properties. Fiber extraction from elephant dung is relatively an easy process and it also opens a new method for recycling animal waste. This research focuses on the manufacturing of composite boards from elephant dung fiber so as to substitute conventional plywood partition boards or plywood boards. Four different samples of composite boards were fabricated (200 mm × 200 mm × 6 mm thick) using a combination of elephant dung fiber and coir fiber in different proportions and their mechanical properties were estimated as per ASTM standards. Different mechanical properties of the prepared elephant dung fiber reinforced composites were compared against commercially available plywood having the same dimensions. Sample with 25 wt% of coir and elephant dung fiber showed maximum tensile strength of 19.44 MPa and it has the maximum impact strength with a value of 13.05 KJ/m2 which was better than the commercially available plywood. It was also observed that maximum flexural strength of 35.20 MPa was found for sample with 50 wt% of coir fiber.