Mechnical characterisation of nanoclay filled jute fiber hybrid composites

Abstract

Natural fiber-reinforced polymer composites with enhanced newlinemechanical properties can be effectively used to replace the ecologically newlinehazardous synthetic fiber-reinforced polymer composites in medium and low newlineload structural applications. A comprehensive study on the possibilities of newlineimproving the mechanical properties of jute fiber reinforced nanoclay filled newlinepolymer composites is very important in the above context. The main newlineobjective of the current work is to investigate the effects of various important newlineparameters such as dispersion of nanoclay in polymer, the effect of filler newlineloading in polymer, and the effect of filler and fiber loading in polymer on the newlinemechanical, dynamic mechanical, tribological, and free vibration newlinecharacteristics of the composite. newlineIn this work, the dispersion of nanoclay in the polyester matrix was newlineinvestigated using Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) and Scanning Electron newlineMicroscopy (SEM) to evaluate the optimum parameters, such as frequency newlineand time using the ultra-sonication technique. Various weight percentages (1, newline3, 5, and 7) of nanoclay were mixed with polyester resin at optimum newlineparameters and the mechanical properties are investigated to determine the newlineoptimum clay percentage in the matrix. Further, with the optimum clay newlineweight percentage, jute fibers of various weight percentages (5, 10, 15, 20, 25, newlineand 30) were added to fabricate the composite using the hand layup method. newlineThe tensile, flexural, impact, interlaminar shear strength, free vibration newlinecharacteristics, fracture toughness, tribological property, and visco-elastic newlinebehavior of the composite were found as per ASTM standards. From the newlineresults, it was found that 5wt% addition of nanoclay and 15wt% of jute fiber newlineincreases the tensile and impact property and 25wt% of jute fiber increases newline