Kenaf Fibre Reinforced Epoxy Composites Research Articles

Electrical and dynamic mechanical analysis of kenaf fiber reinforced epoxy composites hybridized with acacia concinna powder

The objective of this work is to create and analyze composites made of kenaf fibers and epoxy polymer, which are strengthened by the addition of Acacia concinna pod (ACP) powder. These composites are intended for use in electrical insulation applications. The study investigated the impact of alkali treatment using a 6% NaOH solution on kenaf fiber. The effects were analyzed in relation to the dielectric and dynamic mechanical properties, while also considering the addition of different quantities of ACP powder (0%, 4%, and 8%). The composites were produced using the hand layup method, and the dielectric constant, dissipation factor, storage modulus, loss modulus, and damping factor were assessed. The study demonstrated that NaOH-treated kenaf fiber composites displayed considerably lower dielectric constant values than untreated composites, due to increased fiber crystallinity and decreased moisture absorption. Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) found that untreated composites had greater storage modulus and glass transition temperature (Tg) due to reduced segmental motion at the fiber-matrix interface. SEM research indicated better fiber-matrix bonding in treated composites, with decreased voids and robust interlocking, notably in those containing 4% Acacia concinna (ACP) filler. These findings show that NaOH treatment substantially enhances the performance of hybrid composites for electrical insulating applications.

Study on the effect of CuO influenced kenaf fiber reinforced epoxy composite – A novel material for secondary structural applications

This study investigates the effects of copper oxide (CuO) particles on the mechanical and thermal properties of kenaf fibre reinforced epoxy composites, suggesting a new material suitable for structural applications. Comprehensive tests, including Thermogravimetric Investigation (TGA), weakness testing, and Checking Electron Microscopy (SEM), were conducted to evaluate the performance enhancements provided by the incorporation of CuO. The TGA has revealed that CuO particles significantly enhance the thermal stability of the composites. Among the many tests, sample C (6g of CuO) has the highest thermal resistance, retaining 17% of its weight at 500°C, which is higher than the other tests. The fatigue testing demonstrated that the composites exhibited remarkable fatigue resistance, particularly Test C, which maintained a fatigue stress of 14 MPa even after 15,000 cycles, indicating superior durability under cyclic loading circumstances. The SEM study revealed detailed microstructural observations, showing a consistent distribution of CuO particles and strong bonding between the fibres and matrix, which enhance the mechanical performance and resistance to failure.

An experimental investigation of flame retardancy and thermal stability of treated and untreated kenaf fiber reinforced epoxy composites

Abstract Natural fiber reinforced polymeric composites perform poor in mechanical and thermal properties at elevated temperatures due to the cellulose and hemicellulose contents of natural fiber start degrading at elevated temperature. In this research work, flame retardancy and thermal stability of treated and untreated kenaf fiber reinforced epoxy composites have been experimentally investigated and reported. Two composite laminates, one with 6 % NaOH Alkali treated and another with untreated woven kenaf mats, were fabricated by hand lay-up technique followed by compression molding with 40 % fiber weight fractions. Flame retardancy test and various thermal characteristics studies such as thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), heat deflection temperature (HDT), and morphological analysis via scanning electron microscopy (SEM) tests were carried out. The results showed that alkali treated kenaf fiber composite achieved V0 fire retardancy grade. The major weight losses, 86 % and 75.5 % for untreated and treated composites respectively were recorded between 300 °C and 450 °C. 13.6 % increase in HDT was noted for treated composite with 0.25 mm deflection at 0.45 MPa pressure condition. Thus the composite laminate with 6 % NaOH alkali-treated kenaf fiber achieved the best thermal stability with less degradation which is more suitable for automobile and aerospace applications.

Experimental investigation on mechanical properties of Kenaf fibre reinforced epoxy composites with annona squamosa powder

The adoption of biodegradable and environmentally-friendly composite materials is gaining momentum in diverse engineering sectors due to their growing popularity. The present investigation focuses on analysing the influence of fibre treatment on the mechanical properties of hybrid composites made of Kenaf fibres and epoxy matrix. The fibre is subjected to NaOH treatment initially, which is subsequently followed by a comprehensive drying process. The second scenario involves the utilisation of custard apple seed powder, a biodegradable filler material, to modify the matrix. The utilisation of microscopy is employed as a means to analyse the modified fibres and to identify any potential surface alterations that may have taken place. Following this, epoxy composites are fabricated by utilising modified and unmodified Kenaf fibres through a basic hand layup method with vacuum bagging. The composites that have been prepared are subsequently evaluated for their characteristics through tensile and flexural measurements, in compliance with the applicable ASTM standards.

Effect of nanoparticles in natural fiber reinforced polymer composites

Fiber surface modifications by chemical treatment and matrix modification with nanofillers are two key techniques used in recent times to improve the natural fiber reinforced polymer composite strength. The impact of titanium dioxide (TiO2), magnesium oxide (MgO), and zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles on the mechanical properties of 6% sodium hydroxide alkali treated kenaf fiber reinforced epoxy composites has been experimentally examined and reported in this research article. All the composite samples were fabricated using vacuum bagging technique, with 35% Fiber weight ratio. The nanofillers were added in 3% weight proportion of total composite weight using ultrasonication method. According to ASTM standards, the prepared samples were evaluated for tensile, flexural, and impact strength. The experimental results showed that, 6% NaOH treatment on kenaf fibers showed 11.2%, 24.9%, 8.4%, and 28.7% improvement on tensile strength, modulus, flexural and impact strength respectively. The addition of different nano particles in the matrix phase performed well on effective stress transfer between fiber layers through matrix layers, hence improvement on mechanical properties were noted.

Experimental investigation and multi-objective optimization of multiple mechanical characteristics for chemically treated kenaf fibre reinforced epoxy composite using grey fuzzy logic

In the present work, chemically treated kenaf fibre (10, 20 and 30 wt. %) reinforced epoxy resin composite formulations were fabricated using hand lay-up technique. The prepared composites were mechanically characterized using Taguchi L27experimental design to examine the influence of varying kenaf fibre wt. %, NaOH concentration % for chemical treatment, and fibre immersion duration. The grey-fuzzy optimization approach was utilized for optimizing prepared formulations mechanical properties such as tensile strength, impact strength and flexural strength. Further, analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests and response graphs were utilized for delivering model significance and determining the percentage contribution of input variables. The NaOH concentration % was found to be most significant parameter followed by kenaf wt. % in providing best mechanical properties of chemically treated kenaf fibre reinforced epoxy composites.

Experimental investigation of Mechanical and Thermal properties of Coir-Kenaf reinforced epoxy composites

Development of Composite materials has made a huge impact in the history of the materials. Current Engineering market chooses composite materials instead of traditional materials, inspired by the superior properties exhibited by the composite materials. To reap the benefits, in concern with the environmental scenario, Natural fibers, instead of synthetic fibers are reinforced to the polymer matrix. As the Engineering sector is forced to reduce the Carbon dioxide emissions, in order to reduce the effect of Global warming, Manufacturers place natural fibers for Synthetic fibers to yield Green products, thereby reducing the effect of global warming. Strict norms controlling the synthetic fiber employment in the market, has given way for the Researchers to develop Composite natural fibers and bio degradable with better properties to that of synthetics. Fields such as Automobiles, Building construction started leaning over Composite platform for their promising features. Even though these Natural fibers possess advantageous features like easy availability, Reusable nature, easily degradable, etc., they do possess disadvantageous features. As these natural fibers do exhibit superior nature in Mechanical properties, Properties such as adhesiveness, wetting ability, etc., put them down the line of synthetic fibers. These inferior qualities of the natural fibers can be much reduced by the usage of two different fibers in one reinforcement. This technique is known as hybridization. Chemical treatment of Hybrid fibers does yield better properties. In this paper, Mechanical & Thermal properties of Coir - Kenaf fiber reinforced epoxy composites are studied to assess the influence of Fiber treatment. The specimen fibers were tested both for treated and Untreated condition. Treated specimen exhibits better Mechanical properties than the untreated one. It is found that the thermal conductivity of treated is more than the untreated hybrid composites.

Mechanical Characteristics Study of Chemically Modified Kenaf Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Composites

ABSTRACT An experimental investigation was conducted to identify the optimum fiber content and the effect of fiber alkaline treatment on kenaf fiber reinforced epoxy composites and reported in this article. The entire research work was carried out in two phases. In first phase, kenaf fiber reinforced epoxy composites with fiber weight fractions 20%, 30%, 40%, and 50% (on the total weight of composites) of raw untreated fibers were fabricated using hand layup followed by compression molding to identify the optimum fiber content. The prepared specimens were tested for tensile, flexural and impact properties as per corresponding ASTM standards. In the second phase the optimal fiber weight fraction was chosen to identify the effect of chemical treatment of kenaf fiber mats with NaOH and KOH solutions on mechanical properties. Based on the test results the optimum fiber content was identified as 40% with 45.98 MPa, 40.50 MPa, and 13.26 kJ/m2 as tensile, flexural and impact strength respectively; and 6% NaOH treatment recorded highest mechanical properties of composite such as 58.34 MPa in tensile, 55.34 MPa in flexural and 16.69 kJ/m2 in impact strengths respectively. Also 6% NaOH treatment shown 26.88%, 37.28%, and 25.87% improvement on tensile, flexural, and impact strengths respectively.

Mechanical Properties of Banana Fabric and Kenaf Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Composites: Effect of Treatment and Hybridization

Nowadays, Natural Fiber Reinforced composites (NFCs) are emerging to be a good substitute for synthetic fiber reinforced composites as NFCs have many advantages such as low density, high specific strength, recyclability, low cost and good sound abatement quality etc. Among all types of NFCs, a vast study has been done on banana fiber and kenaf fiber reinforced composite. However, only limited work has been done on the banana fabric, kenaf fiber reinforced composite and the effect of their hybridization on mechanical properties. In this paper, an attempt has been made to study the mechanical properties of the banana fabric, kenaf fiber and hybrid banana fabric/kenaf fiber reinforced composites. Effect of alkali treatment on kenaf fiber reinforced composite is discussed in the paper. For the present work, plain-woven banana fabric and randomly oriented kenaf fiber are used as reinforcement while the epoxy resin is used as a matrix. samples are fabricated using hand lay-up and vacuum bagging method. Curing is done at ambient temperature (250C-300C) for 48h. Tensile, impact and hardness test has been performed on a specimen according to ASTM standards. Improvement in mechanical properties is observed after alkali (6% NaOH) treatment on kenaf fiber reinforced composite. Tensile testing behavior of randomly oriented kenaf fiber composite has been studied using Finite element method and results are compared with experimental investigations. This topic present big potential because it seeks to find solution for sustainable development with environmental concerns.

Mechanical Properties and Failure Analysis of Short Kenaf Fibre Reinforced Composites Processed by Resin Casting and Vacuum Infusion Methods

Modified and unmodified short kenaf fibre reinforced epoxy composites were processed with different short fibre lengths and fibre concentrations by resin casting (RC) and vacuum-assisted resin infusion (VARIM) methods. Three types of kenaf fibres were reinforced in epoxy polymer, namely, untreated kenaf fibre, mercerised and nanoclay-infused kenaf fibres. The mechanical properties such as tensile, flexural and impact properties of composites were studied. Nanoclay infused kenaf fibres have shown better tensile, flexural and impact properties than those of untreated and mercerised fibres. The composites processed by VARIM possess improved tensile and flexural properties when compared with RC composites, whereas the impact properties were better in RC composites than those of VARIM processed composites. The results showed that the mechanical properties of composites depend on the short fibre length and fibre concentration, irrespective of the processing conditions. Improved water barrier properties were also obtained in nanoclay-treated banana fibre composites.

Mechanical Properties Characterization of Okra Fiber Based Green Composites & Hybrid Laminates

The research towards the development of composites has been around for many years. But rising concerns about the global warming, waste generation & management, increasing environmental consciousness, growing pressure on the resources of fossil fuels has led to the development of green composites.Furthermore, there are some natural fibers where the properties can be good in comparison with the synthetic fibers which have contributed to this development. In this paper the experimental characterization of mechanical properties of okra fiber reinforced epoxy composite has been performed. finite element analysis (FEA), analytical study was performed to characterize the properties of banana and kenaf fiber reinforced epoxy composites. A number of inter - lamina hybrid laminates of different configurations were designed using these composite laminas and their mechanical properties were found and compared.

The effect of treatment on kenaf fiber using green approach and their reinforced epoxy composites

In this study we show the novel treatment (surface modification) of kenaf fiber using amino acids and the studies of kenaf fiber reinforced epoxy composites. The kenaf fiber was treated at room temperature for 24 h, using two amino acids namely glutamic acid (acid) and lysine (base). Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) of the treated kenaf fiber (glutamic acid treated and lysine treated) showed more weight loss than compared to untreated fiber. The tensile studies of the composites suggested improved mechanical properties in both the cases, glutamic acid treated and lysine treated kenaf fiber than compared to untreated samples. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) of the composites suggested that the storage modulus, loss modulus and tanδ were most influenced by the chemical treatment. The morphological studies of the kenaf fibers before and after treatment were examined using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and revealed that the chemical treatment for 24 h, removed any impurity from thefibers surface. In addition, morphological studies of fractured mechanical testing composite samples using SEM were performed to understand the de-bonding of fiber/matrix adhesion. The results, confirmed that the lysine treatment is more effective than the glutamic acid treatment on kenaf fibers.

The Effect of Customized Woven and Stacked Layer Orientation on Tensile and Flexural Properties of Woven Kenaf Fibre Reinforced Epoxy Composites

The synthetic fibres have created some issues including risk of inhalation during fabrication process, renewability, biodegradability, and recyclability in composites industry. The usage of biocomposites as a replacement to synthetic fibres is beginning to be widespread. However, it is noted that lesser attention has been devoted to evaluating the mechanical properties of woven kenaf composites at various woven and stacked layer orientation. Thus, the research objective is to identify the effect of woven and stacked layer orientation on tensile and flexural properties of kenaf composites. Two types of fibre orientation are employed; type A contains a higher yarn density and type B contains a low yarn density. The tensile and flexural tests are conducted to analyze the mechanical properties of woven kenaf fibre composites and compare them to random chopped kenaf composites. The fracture interface between fibre and matrix epoxy is further investigated via scanning electron microscope. Type A kenaf improved up to 199% and 177% as compared to random chopped kenaf for flexural strength and tensile strength, respectively. Scanning electron microscopy analysis shows that resin matrix is properly induced into kenaf fibre gap hence giving additional strength to woven kenaf as compared to random chopped kenaf.

Characteristics of continuous unidirectional kenaf fiber reinforced epoxy composites

Kenaf fibers generally has some advantages such as eco-friendly, biodegradability, renewable nature and lighter than synthetic fibers. The aims of the study are to characterize and evaluate the physical and mechanical properties of continuous unidirectional kenaf fiber epoxy composites with various fiber volume fractions. The composites materials and sampling were prepared in the laboratory by using the hand lay-up method with a proper fabricating procedure and quality control. Samples were prepared based on ASTM: D3039-08 for tensile test and the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was employed for microstructure analysis to observe the failure mechanisms in the fracture planes. A total of 40 samples were tested for the study. Results from the study showed that the rule of mixture (ROM) analytical model has a close agreement to predict the physical and tensile properties of unidirectional kenaf fiber reinforced epoxy composites. It was also observed that the tensile strength, tensile modulus, ultimate strain and Poisson’s ratio of 40% fiber volume content of unidirectional kenaf fiber epoxy composite were 164MPa, 18150MPa, 0.9% and 0.32, respectively. Due to the test results, increasing the fiber volume fraction in the composite caused the increment in the tensile modulus and reduction in the ultimate tensile strain of composite.

A Study of Fatigue Life of Kenaf Fibre Composites

Towards green material, fatigue life of unidirectional kenaf fibre reinforced epoxy composites was investigated made from the hand-layout technique. The composites were subjected to tension-tension fatigue loading at stress ratio of 0.5 and 5 Hz of frequency. Fibre content ratios were found to affect fatigue life on the low cycle fatigue regime strongly as illustrated with stress level versus cycles to failure. It is found that kenaf fibre reinforced epoxy composites with higher fibre content posses higher load carrying capacity and degradation rates.

Fatigue Behavior of Kenaf Fibre Reinforced Epoxy Composites

Towards green material, fatigue life of epoxy and its unidirectional kenaf fibre reinforced epoxy composites were investigated. These specimens were hand lay-out made. The specimens were cycled to tension-tension fatigue loading at stress ratio of 0.5 and 5 Hz of frequency to determine the fatigue life and its life characteristic at given 5 stress levels. Fibre content ratios were found to affect fatigue life strongly on the low cycle fatigue regime as illustrated with stress level versus cycles to failure. It is found that kenaf fibre reinforced epoxy composites with higher fibre content posses higher load carrying capacity and degradation rates. The existing models developed by Mandell, Manson-Coffin and Hai-Tang were adopted to predict the fatigue life. Some of the models show minor similarities with the experimental data, but not universally applicable to predict the fatigue life when it comes with various amount of fibre volume.

Effects of LENR addition on mechanical properties of kenaf fibre reinforced epoxy composites

Effects of liquid epoxidized natural rubber (LENR) on the mechanical behaviour of kenaf fibre reinforced epoxy composite were studied. Kenaf fibres (Hibiscus cannabinus, L. family Malvaceae) and thermoset matrices were hand-laid up and characterized in terms of its mechanical properties. The objective of this research is to investigate the effect of LENR to the flexural and impact properties of the kenaf fibre reinforced epoxy composites. The fibres were alkali treated before use as reinforcement in the epoxy resin matrix. Five different fibre concentrations of 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% by weight have been used (with and without addition of liquid epoxidized natural rubber). Flexural, impact and DMTA tests of rubber toughened epoxy reinforced kenaf fibre composites were performed. The fractured surfaces of these composites were investigated by using scanning electron microscopic technique (SEM) to determine the interfacial bonding between the matrix and the fibre reinforcement. It was found that the addition of LENR increased the flexural strength, flexural modulus and impact strength by 17.6%, 11% and 47% respectively.