Investigations of mechanical properties of natural fiber reinforced polymer composites

Abstract

Polymer composites are attracted by the industrialists, material scientists and investigators because of its applications in the fields like building industries, electronic industries, electrical industries, automobile sectors, marine, aviation and medical applications. Natural fiber reinforced polymer composites are majorly used owing to its low cost, environmental friendly, resistance to corrosion, resistance to electricity, high specific strength. Hybrid composite is a composite material fabricated by two or more fillers within the matrix. newlineIn the present investigation, a hybrid composite was fabricated using neem and Indian almond fruit fiber by hand layup technique. Density measurement was carried out to confirm the rigidity of composite and the results showed that the prepared composites contained allowable percentage of voids. Mechanical properties like tensile strength, flexural strength and impact energy absorption were tested. To understand the depreciation of the material, wear test was performed. Further, the neem fiber and Indian almond fruit fiber surface morphology was studied by scanning electron microscopy and the chemical composition of the fibers were investigated by the FTIR analysis. newlineThe results showed that the composite prepared with neem fiber as skin displayed a superior tensile and flexural strengths compared to that of the composite material prepared with Indian almond fruit fiber as skin owing to the high strength of neem fiber. The impact energy of the composite material prepared with Indian almond fruit fiber as skin exhibited a greater value compared to that of the composite material prepared with neem as skin due to the absorption more impact energy by the Indian almond fruit fiber. newline