Manufacturing and mechanical characterization of alkali-treated Borassus fruit natural fiber with cellulose acetate synthetic fiber reinforced polymer composite: selection of optimum configuration using CRITIC-integrated EDAS soft computing techniques

Abstract

Hybrid polymer composites, primarily using fibres, hold a dominant share in multiple applications owing to their economical aspect and environmentally friendly attributes. This research delves into the mechanical properties of a composite matrix using poly vinyl ester (PVE) reinforced by a combination of alkali-treated natural Borassus fruit fibre (BF) and untreated synthetic cigarette butts’ fibre (CF). The manufacturing process involved creating these hybrid composites through compression moulding, incorporating different ratios (0%, 5%, and 10%) of eggshell powder (EP). The resulting composites underwent comprehensive analysis using various techniques such as TGA, FESEM, and FTIR. A coupled multi-criterion decision-making (MCDM) framework consisting of Criteria Importance through Inter Criteria Correlation (CRITIC)—Evaluation based on Distance from Average Solution (EDAS) is working to assess the optimal fabricated composite combinations for greater mechanical behaviour. The tensile, impact and flexural properties of BF (40 wt.%) + CF (40 wt.%) with EP 5 wt.% were achieved to be 53.62 MPa, 38.67 MPa and 37.78 J/m correspondingly. A sensitive analysis was performed by interchanging the weights of testing composite mechanical properties to measure its influence on the final ranking. According to the hybrid optimization response and experimentation work, it is concluded that C9 composites delivered improved mechanical characteristics as compared with other manufactures composites.