Comparative Study of Mechanical Properties Between Jute Fiber Composite and Luffa Fiber Composite

Abstract

In current years, composites have concerned considerable importance as a potential operational material. Low cost, lightweights, high specific modulus, renewability and biodegradability are the most basic & common attractive features of composites that make them useful for industrial applications. With low cost, high specific mechanical properties, natural fiber signifies a worthy renewable and biodegradable substitute to the most common synthetic reinforcement i.e. glass fiber. There are numerous potential natural resources in Bangladesh. Most grows from the forest and agriculture. Luffa cylindrical locally called as “sponge-gourd” is one such natural resource whose potential as fiber reinforcement in polymer composite has not been explored till date for tribo logical applications. Against this background the present research work has been commenced with an objective to explore the use of natural fiber Luffa as a reinforcement material in epoxy base. In this study our goal is to fabricate glass and fiber reinforced polymer matrix composite materials and compare their tensile and flexural strength. Also, to determine whether adding synthetic fiber will increase its tensile and flexural strength with respect to the increase of cost. For better comparison six different laminar sequence of the composites are made with a weight fraction of 80:20. Flexural strength, Modulus of Elasticity, Young’s Modulus and Tensile strength of the following composite materials have been investigated. Among these different laminar sequences, Luffa fiber composite holds the highest amount of flexural strength, 50.63 MPa and Jute fiber composite highest amount of modulus of elasticity, 3.82 GPa. On the other hand, maximum tensile strength i.e. 26.986 MPa has been found on Jute composite and maximum young’s modulus i.e. .94 has been on Jute fiber composite material