Effect of red mud on mechanical and thermal properties of agave sisalana/glass fiber–reinforced hybrid composites

Abstract The mechanical, thermal, and morphological analysis of red mud filled sisal/glass fiber–reinforced polyester composites have been investigated. In this study, four composite specimens were prepared through hand layup technique by changing the weight percentage of sisal fiber and red mud. Weight percentage of glass fiber and polyester resin are kept constant. The fabricated composite specimens were subjected to mechanical properties such as hardness, impact and tensile behavior, thermal, and morphological analysis. From the results, it is observed that, maximum tensile strength of 45.6 MPa was obtained for C1 specimen. Maximum hardness and impact strength of 85.67 and 391.5 J m −1 was achieved for C2 specimen. In TGA study, C1 and C2 specimen exhibited 85 % of weight loss with the temperature ranges from 300 °C to 400 °C. From SEM analysis, good bonding between fiber and matrix, voids, fiber breakages, fiber pullout, delamination, rich matrix area, poor adhesion between fiber and matrix, poor arrangement of fibers, interlinked fibers, and crack propagation were observed. Based on the results, C2 specimen which contains 30 wt% of sisal fiber and 5 wt% of red mud is performed well than other composites and it is suitable for various applications such as marine, automobile, and aeronautical.