Investigation on the performance of Cellulose filled polyester hybrid Composite reinforced with treated Acacia and cactus fibers

Abstract

Natural fiber reinforced polymer composite materials are frequently sed in all the areas where we are in need of less weight, high specific strength, good thermal resistance, higher fracture toughness and easy fabrication. Hence, conventional materials like metals and woods are replaced by composite materials for their superior properties. The natural fibers abundantly exist all over the world and the researchers used various fibers in their research work. The usage of natural fibers increased significantly in automobile industries in the past two decades and also generally it replaces the glass fibers because of their light weight. The natural fiber shows plenty of advantages when compared to the synthetic fiber in the aspects of renewable, biodegradability, non toxic nature, cost and so on. Natural fibers have broad applications in building and engineering fields. The objective of this research work is to introduce new natural plant fibers as reinforcement in a polymer matrix and to extend the light weight composite materials. Acacia and Cactus fibers are novel to the polymer matrix composite materials. Acacia fibers are extracted from the Acacia Arabica tree which belongs to the genus Leguminosae, Fabaceae family and commonly known as babool in India. Cactus fibers are extracted from the Cactus plant commonly known as Euphorbia Tirucalli or Milk Bush which is commonly available in India and it belongs to the Euphorbia genus and Euphorbiaceae family. newline