Mechanical & thermal properties of natural fiber composite material

Mechanical engineering

Natural fibers have attracting the interest to engineers, researchers, professionals and scientists all over the world as an alternative reinforcement for fiber reinforced polymer composites, because of its superior properties such as high specific strength, low weight, low cost, fairly good mechanical properties, non-abrasive, eco-friendly and bio-degradable characteristics. Polymer composite materials with vegetable fibers were an attractive field for many industries and researchers, however, these materials required the issues of compatibility between the fibers and the polymeric matrix. This work evaluates the thermal and mechanical properties of Doum-fibers reinforcing a low density polyethylene (LDPE) composite to follow the effect of adding fibers into polymer matrix. Doum-fibers were Alkali treated to clean the fiber surface and improve the polymer/fibers adhesion. The Doum-fibers were compounded in LDPE matrix at various contents and extruded as continuous strands. Development of the composites with natural fibers and fillers as a sustainable alternative material for some engineering applications, particularly in aerospace applications and automobile applications. Natural fibers such as jute, coir, sisal, bamboo etc. Natural fibers are renewable, cheap, biodegradable, and environment friendly materials. In this paper Hybrid composites are in the form of sisal/Sic/Glass Fiber, jute/sansevieria fiber, sisal/jute fiber, jute/bamboo fiber. The mechanical and Thermal properties are discussed here, for the hybrid composites the Epoxy resin is used as binder, by adding the Filler to the Natural fibers materials we can further improve the performance of the composites.

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