EVALUATION OF THE MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF STYRENE BUTADIENE RUBBER(SBR)/BANANA FIBRE(BF) COMPOSITES

Tensile strength, rip strength, abrasion loss, hardness, and thermal conductivity are the main characteristics of Styrene-Butadiene Rubber (SBR) composites that are examined in this work as a function of increasing banana fibre loading. Because banana fibres are reinforcing, adding them to the SBR matrix initially increases tensile and tear strength. However, there is an ideal concentration at which fibre aggregation and poor interfacial bonding cause these qualities to drop. Abrasion loss increases with higher loadings because of insufficient fibre dispersion, but it decreases with moderate fibre concentration, indicating enhanced wear resistance. Fibre addition improves the composites' hardness up to a certain point, beyond which adding too many fibres causes inconsistent results and lower hardness. It is discovered that as fibre counts increase, thermal conductivity decreases. KEYWORDS—SBR composites, tensile strength, thermal conducutivty.