Improving Mechanical Properties of Rice Husk and Straw Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composite through Reinforcement Optimization

The generation of lignocellulosic agriculture waste and the residue is unavoidable, and disposal of the same with burning or burying creates environmental issues. In recent years the scientific community is continuously looking for sustainable development using natural resources for development. Rice husk (RH) and straw (RS) are already proposed as natural fiber reinforcing materials for natural fiber reinforced polymer composite (NFRPC). In this article, an attempt has been made to obtain the optimized proportion of rice husk and straw reinforcement in bio epoxy resin for the development of rice husk and straw fiber-reinforced hybrid composite with improved mechanical properties. The grey relational analysis (GRA) methodology is implemented to obtain the optimized proportion of RH and RS for maximization of tensile and flexural strength of polymer composite simultaneously. The experimental and grey relational analysis result presents the addition of 05 and 08 wt% of RS and RH fiber respectively in bio epoxy resin presents rice straw and husk reinforced polymer composite with improved tensile and flexural strength simultaneously. (C) 2021 Jordan Journal of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. All rights reserved