EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON TENSILE AND FLEXURAL PROPERTIES OF KENAF/PINEAPPLE HYBRID NATURAL FIBER COMPOSITES

K.Rajendran, N.Venkatesan

Abstract: The natural fiber composite fabrication has been a highly preferred field of research due to its unique properties like low mass density, stiffness, light in weight, low budget, easy obtainability and exceptional mechanical properties. These properties had found many applications in aircraft, space, automotive, sporting goods etc. The natural hybrid composites are the centre of attention for researchers as it serves in various engineering applications as asubstitute to commonly used synthetic fiber composites. The motive of this project is to study and enquire the tensile and flexural properties of Kenaf/Pineapple natural hybrid fiber with reinforced epoxy resin experimentally. The mechanical properties of Kenaf fiber are enhanced by incorporating the kenaf fiber with pineapple fiber. These hybridisations of fibres are made at different weight fractions and are incorporated with the mixture of resin epoxy LY556 and hardener HY951 by hand layup techniques. ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) standards were strictly followed for the preparation and testing of the tensile and flexural test specimens.

Keywords: Composite, Kenaf fiber, Pineapple fiber, tensile properties, epoxy resin.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.15623/ijret.2018.0709023