Study on mechanical characteristics of woven cotton/bamboo hybrid reinforced composite laminates

Abstract

In this study, two fabrics namely cotton/cotton woven fabric having cotton yarn in both warp and weft direction; and cotton/bamboo woven fabric with cotton yarn (warp direction) and bamboo yarn (weft direction) were selected. Compression moulding method has been used to fabricate cotton/cotton and cotton/bamboo woven fabric reinforced composites with epoxy resin as a matrix material. The mechanical properties of cotton/cotton and cotton/bamboo reinforced composites had been compared under five different fiber loading conditions (30, 35, 40, 45 and 50 wt.%) and the fractured morphology was analyzed using scanning electron microscope. It was noted that cotton/bamboo reinforced composite with 45 wt.% fiber loading exhibited the best mechanical properties namely tensile, flexural, impact, compression, and inter laminar shear stress (ILSS), due to its weft direction of bamboo yarn. Keywords: Woven cotton, Bamboo fabric, Mechanical properties, Fractrographic analysis, Laminates, Epoxy