Improvement of Mechanical Properties of Coir/Epoxy Composites through Hybridization with Sisal and Palmyra Palm Fibers

Abstract

In the present work, an attempt was made to improve the mechanical properties of the coir fiber reinforced epoxy composites through addition of high strength sisal and palmyra palm fibers. The hybrid composites were fabricated using compression molding technique by maintaining the volume fraction of fiber to matrix as 40:60. In the hybrid composites, the volume fraction of coir was maintained as 20%, while the volume fraction of other fibers was varied from 5% to 15%. The mechanical properties of the hybrid composites were investigated as a function of fiber volume fraction of sisal and palmyra palm fibers. The outcomes revealed that the hybrid composite have higher mechanical properties than the coir fiber composites due to synergistic effect of reinforcements. Furthermore, the morphological studies were carried out on the mechanical tested samples to predict the failure mechanisms.

Keywords

• hybrid composites
• natural fibers
• coir
• palmyra palm
• sisal
• epoxy