Comparative Study on Mechanical Behaviour of Synthetic, Natural and Hybrid Composite Laminates

Abstract

Composites play a significant role as an engineering material and their use has been increasing day by day due to their specific properties such as high strength to weight ratios, high modulus to weight ratio, corrosion resistance and wear resistance. In composite material matrix and fiber play an important role; as the load is taken by matrix and transmitted to the reinforcement. Reinforcement can be either synthetic or natural fiber. Manufacturing of synthetic fibers is harmful from the environmental point of view; hence recent research work is focused on the use of natural fiber as reinforcement. In this current work jute as natural fiber taken into account for reinforcement along with synthetic glass fiber along with LY556 Epoxy resin and HY951 hardener. Three types of composites materials were prepared such as Glass-Epoxy unidirectional, Jute-Epoxy, Glass & Jute Epoxy hybrid composite laminates had been prepared using hand lay-up process and the testing was done by using ASTM Standards. The major properties that govern the strength of composites materials are tensile strength, compressive strength, flexural strength, and vibration characteristics. The content of natural and synthetic reinforcement was found to be 60% and 40% respectively. The experimental results show that the Glass & jute Epoxy composites give the major withstanding capacity for tension and flexural test. Vibration test exhibits higher natural frequency, but in compression test Glass epoxy reflects its higher mechanical strength, whereas in compression test delamination occurs. The additional use of jute with glass reduces the cost and thus it is eco-friendly.