Experimental investigation on the mechanical properties of chicken feather fibe reinforced vinyl ester composites

Abstract

Nowadays, natural fiber and particle reinforced polymer composite materials are used in many engineering applications such as structural, automobiles, marine, and electrical, due their better specific strength and stiffness, light weight and better corrosion resistance. Accordingly, a continuous improvement in polymer composite reinforced with the naturally available materials opens a new entryway for the development of polymer composites with better performance. At Present, naturally available waste materials (some fibers and particulates) as reinforcing agents are mostly used in both the polymers (thermo-set and thermoplastic). Though, the physical, mechanical and thermal properties of polymer composites reinforced with fiber and particle mainly depend on the interface strength between the reinforcements and the polymer matrix. To achieve a strong interface, fibers and particulates in the polymer matrix should act as an effective reinforcing agent. The availability and applications of bio-waste Chicken Feather Fibers (CFF s) as reinforcement were focused by few researchers in polymer matrix composites. The CFF s are relatively low density bio material, which abundantly available in South India. The CFF s are thrown as waste in the most of the places. The researchers suggested that the use of feather as reinforcement in composite is the best alternate to make a bio-composite. The effects of fiber length and content of CFF s on the mechanical properties of Vinyl Ester (VE) composites are presented. Composites are prepared in the randomly oriented form by hand lay-up technique by three different fiber length and five different fiber content. The variations in the mechanical properties, such as tensile, flexural and impact, of vinyl ester resin matrix is examined based on the fiber length and content.The test results prove the increase in mechanical properties of CFF/VE composites increasing length and content of CFF s. Composite having the fiber length of 6 mm and content of 40 wt% gives highest mechanical properties compared to the other composites. The results revealed that the optimum length and content for bio waste CFF s in VE composites are found to be 6 mm and 40 wt. % in order to achieve good reinforcement with better mechanical properties in vinyl ester composites. newline