Experimental investigation on the mechanical properties of Hardwickia Binata fibre reinforced polymer composites

Composites fabricated from renewable sources have become important alternative materials for designing, manufacturing engineering and industrial products. Natural fiber composites have become a better alternative for synthetic fiber reinforced materials, due to their easy manufacturing process, high fiber content, pollution control, less weight, and even to burn to ash. So in the present research work a new fiber is introduced to find environmental friendly green composites. The present work evaluated the effect of fiber loading and fiber orientation on the mechanical properties of Hardwickia Binata fiber reinforced epoxy composites. Hardwickia Binata fiber is used as reinforcement which treated with 5% NaOH solution for enhancing the bonding strength between fiber and resin by removing moisture contents. Samples at different fiber loadings (5%, 10%, 15% and 20%) and varying fiber orientations (0 degrees, 30 degrees, 60 degrees, 90 degrees) were fabricated by hand lay-up moulding Process and investigated mechanical properties like tensile, flexural, impact and compressive strengths. The results of this study indicate at the 20% fiber loading and 0 degrees fiber orientation shows superior mechanical properties compared to the other orientations and fiber loading. Morphological analysis was carried out to observe fracture of the internal surfaces, delaminating of fibers, fiber pullouts and morphology using scanning electron microscope. (C) 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.