FEA AND EXPERIMENTAL ANALYSIS OF HYBRID COMPOSITE OF GLASS FIBRE AND BANANA FIBRE

MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

The increasing demand for environmental friendly materials and the desire to reduce the cost of traditional fiber lead to the development of natural fiber composites. Natural fibers presented in the composite have some important advantages such as low density, appropriate stiffness, mechanical properties and renewability.. Banana fibers (BF) obtained from the stem of banana plant have been characterized for their diameter variability and their mechanical properties, with a stress on fracture morphology. In the present work Glass and banana fiber reinforced composite material is developed. Epoxy based four hybrid composites was examined using scanning electron microscope (SEM).. Variations in tensile and flexural properties of banana fibre reinforced polyester composites caused by the addition of glass fibre have been analysed. Banana fibre in combination with glass is very good for making economical composite materials. In the present work Epoxy based four hybrid composites (C1, C2, C3 and C4) have been fabricated with short banana and glass fiber loading (85 wt% Epoxy +7.5 wt% Banana fiber +7.5 wt% Glass fiber), (80 wt% Epoxy + 10 wt% Banana fiber +10 wt% Glass fiber), (75 wt% Epoxy + 12.5 wt% Banana fiber +12.5 wt% Glass fiber) and (70 wt% Epoxy + 15 wt% Banana fiber +15 wt% Glass fiber). A gradual increase in tensile and flexural strength can be observed with the increase in the fiber loading up to 25 wt% of composites. It has been observed that the tensile modulus increases by addition of fiber content up to 20 wt% then decreases due to addition of 25 wt% of fibers. Hardness value increases as wt% of fibers (banana and glass) increases. Hardness is maximum for sample C4 (70 wt% Epoxy + 15 wt% Banana fiber +15 wt% Glass fiber) as compared to pure epoxy. Experimental and analytical approach shows that the tensile and flexural strength increases as the fiber loading in the composite increases. Both the strength analysis shows 26.75%, 6.59%, 7.22% and 9.77% deviation in the experimental and analytical tensile test and 12.40%, 5.28%, 5.01% and 2.93% deviation in the experimental and analytical flexural test corresponding to sample C1, C2, C3 and C4 respectively.in XRD analysis Sharp peaks in sample with 15 wt%, 20 wt%, 25 wt% and 30 wt% of fiber sample confirm the semi crystalline nature of composites. SEM images shows that the increase in strength properties of composites at 30wt% fiber loading is due to the better adhesion between fiber and matrix.

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