Fabrication, Characterization and Moisture Absorption Analysis of Sponge Fiber-Coir Reinforced Epoxy Resin Hybrid Composite

Abstract

Natural fiber reinforced composites are gaining popularity over conventional materials due its low cost, easy accessibility, non toxicity and most important feature - the biodegradability. Since broad varieties of natural fibers are available on earth, hence their merits can be incorporated in one by means of hybridization. Matured sponge gourd, which turns into a net structured fibrous mass on sun drying, is amalgamated with coconut coir as reinforcement along with epoxy resin as matrix material in a composite. The present study was carried out to explore the impact of change in weight percentages of sponge gourd fiber and coir on the mechanical properties and moisture affinity. The alkali treated fibers were turned into composites by dint of Hand Layup technique. The various mechanical properties were evaluated according to ASTM protocol. After the successful conclusion of the experiments, it was found that composite with maximum weight percentage of coir showed superlative tensile and impact strength whereas the composite with highest sponge fibre content showed maximum flexural strength. The composite with equal sponge fiber-coir weight percentage displayed lowest affinity towards moisture.