INVESTIGATION OF MECHANICAL AND MACHINING CHARACTERISTICS OF ABACA BASED HYBRID COMPOSITES

Abstract

newline Composite materials are one of the major developments in material technology. Composite materials have made significant impact in the fields of engineering and technology as they demonstrate combined properties of reinforcement and matrix to form stronger and stiffer materials that cannot be obtained from the constituent materials acting alone. They are a combination of two or more constituent materials with significantly different physical or chemical properties. In composites a distinct reinforcement (in fiber form/particle form/ whisker/fabric) is distributed in a matrix or binder or resin. newline In this research work, three categories of composite samples are prepared. In the first category (C1), between the bottom and top glass fiber layers, three layers of combination of alternate jute and abaca strips are placed orthogonally. In the second category (C2), between the top and between the bottom and top glass fiber layers, three layers of combination of jute and abaca strips are placed in Parnell directions. In the third category (C3), between the bottom and top glass fiber layers, three layers of combination jute and abaca strips are placed at an angle of 45o. In each category, three samples namely S1, S2 and S3 are produced. Sample S1 contains 25% abaca and 75% jute. Sample S2 contains an equal proportion of abaca and jute. Sample S3 contains 75% abaca and 25 % jute. The required interfacial adhesion and bonding between various layers of fiber is achieved by using Epoxy resin (LY 556) and hardener (HY951) mixed in a ratio of 10:1. newline Tensile test, flexural test, double shear test impact and inter-delamination behavior tests are conducted on the prepared samples to study the tensile strength, flexural strength, shear strength impact strength and inter-delamination behavior. These tests are conducted with Universal testing machine and Charpy testing machine. For all these tests, ASTM standards are adopted. In tensile test, the samples having higher abaca newlinecontent exhibit better tensile properties