New M.Tech. Thesis Submitted from Production

EFFECT OF HYBRIDIZATION ON MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF NATURAL FIBER REINFORCED POLYMER COMPOSITES by Jagmeet Singh 

Abstract

In the last few decoys, synthetic textiles such as plastics have been employed as an alternate to iron/steel for manufacturing automotive components. Synthetic textiles are used for fabricating almost every item from the products of household to complex structures machine components and many more. Due to less weight, high strength and low water absorption properties, synthetic plastics find an extensive application in field of engineering. Actually, different synthetic fibers like nylon, glass, polyester, and carbon are mainly utilized as reinforcement in plastics composites. At present, because of deficiency and high cost of petroleum and it's by products, there is a need to look for its substitute, which is only natural and bio-degradable. The role of composite materials in field of engineering is gradually increasing. The composite consists of mainly two phases, i.e. matrix and fiber. The aim of this study is to evaluate mechanical properties such as tensile, flexural and impact strength of hybrid sisal/jute reinforced epoxy composites. The composite samples are prepared by hand layup and compression molding technique. The hybrid composites of sisal/jute are fabricated with various weight ratios (100/0, 70/30, 50/50, 30/70 and 0/100) at 20% and 30% overall fiber fraction. The results showed that the hybrid fiber composites performed better than non-hybrid fiber reinforced epoxy composites. Structural analysis was carried out to check fracture behavior and fiber pullout of the samples using scanning electron microscope. Keywords: Hybrid, Mechanical Properties and Compression Molding.