Investigation on the performance of cellulose filled epoxy composite reinforced with treated hemp fiber

Abstract

The utilisation of natural fibers in composite laminates increases newlineday by day because they are abundantly available bio degradable newlineinexpensive and eco friendly in nature The current green manufacturing newlinemotto is well met by natural fiber based products Interest in the industrial newlineand the academic sector are now turned towards natural fiber based products newlineNatural fiber reinforced with polymer matrix gains the advantage of light newlineWeight better stiffness high modulus and strength In spite of these newlineAdvantages natural fibers have some limitations and they need to be newlineovercome to make it competitive with the synthetic fibers The objective of this research is to introduce new natural fibers as reinforcement and natural fillers as a particulate in a polymer matrix and to develop light weight composite materials Hemp fiber is lingo cellulosic and the fibers can be extracted easily with less energy consumption Cannabis plants bearing hemp fibers are available all over the world especially in India In this work Hemp fibers were extracted using the retting process The fibers were chemically treated with three different treatments and the effects of them on physical chemical and mechanical properties of Hemp fibers were found experimentally Raw and treated fibers were chopped into six different filler weight percentage of 65 57 50 43 37 and 32 The resin was prepared with a mixture of epoxy hardener and cellulose fillers at a weight ratio of newline10 1 X Epoxy resin and chopped Hemp fibers were mixed with the cellulose newlinefillers and the composites were manufactured using hand layup technique newlineThe specimens were prepared according to the ASTM standards newline newline