Mechanical characterisation of bio filler and sisal fiber reinforced composite

Abstract

Fiber-Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composites are being used extensively as primary and secondary load bearing structures in industries like aerospace, automobile, civil infrastructure, wind energy, marine, and sports where light weight, high strength, and stiffness are required. The most widely used reinforcement is glass fiber, due to lightweight, low cost and corrosion resistant but the main disadvantage of glass fiber reinforced composite is a health risk associated in producing glass fiber and its composite. Due to these newlinerisks, natural fillers and fibers are being investigated as a suitable replacement for synthetic fibers and fillers. The main advantages of natural fillers and fibers are their availability, biodegradability, environmental friendliness, renewability, low cost, low density, high specific properties, low energy consumption, and non-abrasive nature. Natural fibers consist of crystalline cellulose, microfibril reinforced amorphous lignin or/and hemicelluloses matrix. The chemical composition of the plant fibers are cellulose (60 - 80wt %), hemicellulose (5 - 20wt %), lignin and other constituents (20wt %). Along with fibers as reinforcement, fillers also play an important role in improving the composite properties. Thus, nowadays fillers have attracted considerable interest among researchers in industry and academia for its use in the polymer matrix. Wood particles, Rice husks, Wheat husks, coconut shell powders etc. are widely used as filler material to improve the stiffness of the composite. Fillers are used mainly to improve the hardness, damping properties, and thermal stability of the composites; and they are also used to reduce the cost of composite materials. The effect of filler materials on the properties of polymer composite have been studied by several researchers. newline newline