Experimental Investigation of Jute FiberReinforcedNano Clay Composite

Abstract

The effect of addition of nano clay and water absorption on jute fibreshas been studied. Although glass and other synthetic fibre-reinforced plastics possess high specific strength, their fields of application are very limited because of the inherent higher cost of production. To overcome this limitation, an investigation has been carried out to make use of jute, a natural fibre which is abundantly available at lower cost. In the present work, a new composite is developed in which jutefibresare reinforced with polyester resin and with the addition of nano clay.Themechanical properties of the new composite are evaluated. The wide variety of bio composite processing techniques as well as the factors such as moisture content, fibre type and content, and their influence on composites properties are discussed. The addition of nano clay to the jutefibre reinforced composites exhibited significant improvement in the mechanical propertiesat lower cost and therefore can be used as a substitute to glass and synthetic fibres.