Experimental investigation on the mechanical and wear behavior of epoxy/Indian almond/peepal hybrid composites

Abstract

Natural fiber-based hybrid composites are gaining more attention in industrial usage due to their low cost, environmental friendliness, and simplicity of processing. In this research, an effort was made to create hybrid natural composites using Indian almond and peepal fibers for applications in the automotive industry. Composites were prepared with different volume fractions of Indian almond and peepal fibers using the hand layup process. The mechanical and tribological properties of the composites were tested. The epoxy/40 wt% peepal composite showed superior performance compared to all other composites due to the better strength of peepal fiber. Moreover, the same composite displayed the least wear loss and coefficient of friction (COF). The present study confirms that peepal fiber composites match the strength properties of existing industrial composite materials, and that they may be some of the alternative composites for automotive applications.