EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON MECHANICAL BEHAVIOR OF PALM BASED NATURAL FIBRE REINFORCED POLYMER COMPOSITES

The specific objectives of this study were developing an eco-friendly NFRPC to be used in various parts of an automobile, studying the effects of pretreatment on fibres, filler addition, hybridization of fibres, and evaluating the mechanical characteristics of the FRP composites like hardness, tensile, flexural, impact strength and water absorption rate. It has been found that palm fibres can be used as a successful natural reinforcement to develop biobased composites after suitably bonding with the resin. The surface treatment by potassium permanganate on natural palm fibres is possible and it improves the mechanical characteristics. The sandwiching of palm fibres within the glass fibre layer combines the strength of both the natural and synthetic fibres. The cheaper and naturally-available coconut shell nano-filler can be added to the composite resin system which disperses uniformly within the polyester resin enhancing the overall characteristics of the composites.