Investigative studies on natural fiber reinforced composites for automotive bumper beam applications

The automotive sector wants lighter, recyclable, degradable, and sustainable composite materials. In the last few decades, natural fiber composite has been used in a wide range. The natural plant-based fibers are reinforced into polymeric composite materials, giving significant mechanical properties compared to conventional material. This work selects flax and sisal fibers due to higher strength and Young's modulus. Mechanical behavior such as tensile, flexural, and impact strength are evaluated. Mechanical behavior results are considered in the simulation to determine the performance of an automotive bumper beam. The tensile strength of the flax composite is 90% higher than that of the sisal composite. Flexural strength is 17% higher in a flax composite, whereas energy absorption is nearly identical in a flax and sisal composite. The flax composite has a maximum 204.9 MPa tensile strength, 157.98 MPa flexural strength, and 45 J energy absorption. The mechanical behavior results are validated with simulation results in the ANSYS workbench for static analysis. The results indicate that the flax fiber reinforced composite with 43:57 of a flax-matrix ratio performs better as it can be used as a structural material. A morphological study shows the uniform distribution of matrix material and fiber orientation.