Natural Fibre Reinforced Hybrid Composite: Thermal & Mechanical Characterization

Abstract

The waste material can be used for the development of different composite materials after their use for their prime objectives viz. Bagasse fibre, human hair, egg shell etc. These waste materials have some specific mechanical & thermal properties such as tensile and compressive strength, hardness, toughness, moisture content etc. Millions of tonnes of chicken feather is continuously extracted by poultry industry and small proportion of this waste material is utilised while the rest amount considered as waste. Bagasse fibre consist of cellulose, hemi-cellulose and lignin with their respective percentage of 40%, 30% and 15% to offer tensile strength and increases due to formation of quinones constituent of the fibre and its adhesiveness also increases after treatment in furfural alcohol solution. By holding their specific properties, these are biodegradable so the hybrid composite made with the help of these fibres, also biodegradable and Eco-friendly. In this paper, polymer thermoset epoxy resin was used as matrix, Bagasse fibre and chicken feather as reinforcement in definite proportion of 55%, 40% and 5% respectively. The hybrid composite was fabricated with the help of hand lay-up technique. Specimens were prepared as per ASTM standard for tensile and compressive strength, hardness and toughness, the present work also carried out thermal characterization such as TGA and water absorption test having analysis of 72 hrs. After evaluation of their mechanical and thermal properties, this work also present comparison in between neat epoxy polymer composite with natural fibre reinforced hybrid composite.