Mechanical Characterization of Natural Fiber based Polymer Matrix Composite -A Review

Polymer composites are primarily composed of matrix and reinforcement as glass fiber and carbon fiber. These types of fibers are known as synthetic or man-made fibers. These type of synthetic fibers based polymer composites have a certain drawback such as after being used these composites are not reusable and biodegradable. This is a major concern for environment, to counter this problem Natural Fiber (NF) has been introduced in polymer composites as reinforcement. Natural fibers are extracted from plants such as jute, cotton, flax, hemp, sisal, kenaf, pineapple, ramie, bamboo and banana as lingo cellulosic fibers. Classification of natural fibers is shown in Figure 1. Various natural fibers produced from plants have been shown in Figure 2. Natural fiber based composites are renewable, economical, completely or partially recyclable, and biodegradable. Their availability, renewability, less density and cost as well as reasonable mechanical properties make them a potential alternative of synthetic fibers [1]. Properties of selected natural fiber are as shown in Table 1 [2].