Prediction of Mechanical Properties of Polymer Composites Reinforced with Feather Fibers of ‘Emu’ Bird

Abstract

Now a day’s researchers are focusing on natural fiber composites. In the present work composites were prepared with epoxy (Araldite LY-556) resin and ‘emu’ bird feathers as fiber. The composites were prepared by varying the weight percentage (P) of ‘emu’ fiber ranging from 1 to 5 and length (L) of feather fibers from 1 to 5 cm. The various mechanical properties like tensile strength, flexural strength; flexural modulus and impact strength were determined. An attempt is made to model the mechanical properties through response surface methodology (RSM). Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) is used to check the validity of the model. The results reveal that the developed models are suitable for prediction of mechanical properties of Epoxy ‘Emu’ Feather Fiber Composites.