Study on the Mechanical Properties of Alkali Treated Screw Pine Root Fiber Reinforced in Epoxy Matrix Composite Material

Natural fibers have become an important reinforcement material over the last few decades because of their advantages over conventional materials, particularly for their biodegradability property. In this work fibers extracted from screw pine (Pandanus Tectorius) roots is being thoroughly examined as a feasible option for synthetic-based fibre made from petrochemical sources which is a non bio-degradable and toxic in nature. In the present work natural composites were prepared using fibers extracted from the root of screw pine plant as the reinforcement material and Epoxy LY556 as the matrix with varying fiber weight fraction from 10%, 20%, and 30% by hand lay-up fabrication technique. Composite plates were prepared by casting in open mould which is made from steel and wood. The specimens are then sliced from the composite plates as per ASTM standards for studying the tensile properties, impact strength and water absorption properties of the composite material. Analysis of tensile- and impact strengths, and water absorption behaviour of the material has revealed that screw-pine root fibers can be used as a potential reinforcing agent like other fibers like as cotton, jute, kenaf, hemp for making natural composites.