Investigation of mechanical properties of natural fiber reinforced hybrid composites

Abstract

newline Hybrid composite is a composite material that consists of two or more filler reinforcements in the matrix. Two types of filler could be of different physical and chemical properties. The advantage of hybrid composite material over the conventional composite material is the uniform strength and stiffness of the composite material throughout its geometry in all directions. Presently, hybrid composites reinforced with natural fibers show good attraction among the investigators because of its low cost, low density, non-toxic and biodegradable. Kenaf fiber is a natural fiber used in the textile and construction industries due to its superior mechanical properties compared to other natural fibers. Several investigations have been performed on the Kenaf fiber reinforced composites and achieved improved mechanical properties. Indian almond fiber is another one natural fiber used in medicinal field as herbal. However, few researchers have used Indian almond fiber in the engineering applications for construction work and achieved better results. In this investigation, an attempt has been made to fabricate the hybrid composites using Kenaf and Indian almond fibers for construction applications and the mechanical and biodegradation properties were analyzed. Two types of tri-layer composites were fabricated viz. Kenaf/Indian almond/Kenaf (K/I/K) and Indian almond/Kenaf/Indian almond (I/K/I). Tensile and flexural study showed that the tensile and flexural strengths of K/I/K composite was enhanced by 31% and 53% compared to that of I/K/I composite owing to the presence of high strength kenaf fiber at the outer layer. Impact study displayed that the I/K/I composite exhibited 16% improvement in the impact strength compared to that of K/I/K composite due to the presence of high impact strength Indian almond fiber at the outer layer.