Mechanical Behaviour of Areca Nut, Sunn Hemp Natural Fibers and E Glass Fibers Reinforced With Epoxy Composites

Abstract

In this paper, tensile behaviour of the natural fiber composites such as the areca nut composites and the sunn hemp composites were determined. The fibers were arranged in different orientations such as the uniaxial, biaxial and the criss-cross arrangements. For both the types of fiber composites, specimens were made with and without the incorporation of E-glass fibers. Comparisons were done on the basis of fiber orientation, E-glass fibers incorporation and the type of natural fiber used. Initially, the fibers were treated with alkali, i.e. Sodium hydroxide (NaOH) in order to get better bonding at the fiber-matrix interface. The conventional hand lay-up technique followed by the soft compression molding technique was carried out for fabricating the composite specimens. It was inferred from the results that the tensile strength was more for uniaxial arrangement and the least for biaxial arrangement in case of both the fibers. Further, for both the fibers, E-glass fiber incorporation increased the tensile strength as compared to the non-incorporated E-glass fiber composites. Also, sunn hemp composites showed better tensile strength than areca nut composites. The research suggested that the areca nut and sunn hemp composites were assets to many potential applications that did not require very high load bearing capabilities. These examined composites can be considered as very reliable materials for fabrication of lightweight materials used in automobile industry, packaging materials, medical field, etc.

Mechanical behaviour and microscopic analysis of epoxy and E-glass reinforced banyan fibre composites with the application of artificial neural network and deep neural network for the automatic prediction of orientation

“…The moulds in which the specimens would be allowed to cure in are crafted as per ASTM standards - D638 and D790 for the tensile and bending tests respectively, 27,28 which have been illustrated in Figure 1. The choice of wood for the moulds is made to suit the requirements; a material which can be broken with ease and which would not affect the dimensional aspects of the specimen while breaking.…”