Fabrication and Characterization of Wood Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites

Abstract

Fiber reinforced polymer composites is an important class of structural material due to their numerous advantages. As of now there is an increment in interest toward Natural composites which are made by reinforcement of characteristic fiber. Animal hair and Bird Feather has good malleable properties; thus it could be utilized as a fiber reinforcement material. It gives desired property at easier expense of generation. To this end, an attempt has been made to study the potential application of Animal hair and Bird Feather which is economically and effortlessly found in India for making value added products. The objective of the present work is to evaluate and compare the mechanical properties of composites made from Animal Hair (Goat Hair) and Bird Feather (Turkey, Chicken and Duck Feathers) reinforced with Epoxy matrix material. Composites were fabricated at different percentage of fiber loading (3, 5 and 7% by volume) by Hand layup process. The impact of fiber loading on mechanical properties such as tensile strength and flexural strength were examined. Comparison has been made on the mechanical properties of the composites with different reinforcement. 5% chicken feather reinforced epoxy composites showed higher tensile and flexural test. Goat hair also acted as the better reinforcement in epoxy. Water absorption test was also conducted on the composites. From the result it has been identified that if the fiber content increases water absorption also increases. And chicken feathers show less absorption of water when compared with other composites.