Study of mechanical and water absorption characteristics of natural fibre reinforced epoxy composites

Abstract

In the fast developing world, research is mainly focussed on development of renewable and eco-friendly materials as an alternative to non-biodegradable and non-renewable materials which are resulting in environmental pollution. The fibres from the natural sources such as animal and plant based offers various advantages over synthetic fibres such as abundant in nature, economical, ease of handling and processing, comparable strength and minimum amount of waste dispose. In this work, three composites are fabricated using cyperus pangorei, sponge gourd, palm fibres and banana fibres as the main reinforcing materials and epoxy resin as the matrix in order to increase the effectiveness of the natural fibre. It is envisaged to fabricate and study the banana-sponge gourd fibre, banana-cyperus pangorei fibre, banana-palm leaf fibre as a reinforced material in polymer matrix composite. Hand layup process is used to fabricate the composite samples with different fibre volume fractions. The tensile, flexural, impact and water absorption testing have been performed on these natural fibre composites. Initial optimum length and weight percentage were determined. The results are obtained from the mechanical properties testing and compared among all the three combinations. Composite with Sponge gourd along with Banana as reinforcement with epoxy matrix has got the maximum tensile, flexural and impact strength. This composite has also got lower water absorption property.