Polymer composites reinforced with natural fibers have been developed in recent years, showing significant potential for various engineering applications due to their inherent sustainability, low cost, light weight and comparable mechanical strength. Sisal is a natural fiber extracted from leaves of Agave Sisalana plants and substituted for natural glass fiber. Six different combinations of specimens were prepared with sisal, sisal-glass and glass fibers with epoxy as matrix at two different fiber orientation of 0-90° and ±45°. Mechanical characterization such as tensile, flexural and impact testing were done to analyze their mechanical strength. It is found that the hybrid composite sisal-glass-epoxy has better and comparable mechanical properties with conventional glass-epoxy composite and thus provides a viable, sustainable alternate polymer composite.
Mechanical Characterization of the Flax/Epoxy Composite Material