Tensile and flexural properties of natural fiber reinforced polymer composites: A review

2018 ◽  
Vol 37 (24) ◽  
pp. 1435-1455 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammad ZR Khan ◽  
Sunil K Srivastava ◽  
MK Gupta

In recent years, researchers and scientists are facing problems in terms of environmental imbalance and global warming owing to numerous use of composite materials prepared by synthetic fibers and petrochemical polymers. Hence, an increasing attention has been devoted to the research and development of polymer composites reinforced with the natural fibers. The natural fibers are the most suitable alternative of synthetic fibers due to their biodegradability, eco-friendliness and acceptable mechanical properties. The natural fibers are attracting the researchers and scientists to exploit their properties by amalgamating them with the polymer. The properties of natural fiber reinforced polymer composites mainly depend upon various factors such as properties of fibers and matrices, fiber loading percentage, size and orientation of fibers, stacking sequences, degree of interfacial bonding, fiber surface treatments, hybridization and incorporation of additives and coupling agents. Tensile and flexural tests are the most important investigations to predict the applications of the materials. A good number of research has been carried out on tensile and flexural properties of natural fiber reinforced polymer composites. In this paper, a review on tensile and flexural properties of natural fiber reinforced polymer composites in terms of effects of fiber weight fraction, geometry, surface treatments, orientations and hybridization is presented. Moreover, recent applications of natural fiber reinforced polymer composites are also presented in this study.

2015 ◽  
Vol 766-767 ◽  
pp. 133-139 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeswin Arputhabalan ◽  
K. Palanikumar

This paper deals with tensile properties of natural fiber reinforced polymer composites. Natural fibers have recently found increasing use in various fields as an alternative to synthetic fiber reinforced polymers. Due to this they have become attractive to engineers, researchers and scientists. Natural fibers are replacing conventional fibers such as glass, aramid and carbon due to their eco-friendly nature, lesser cost, good mechanical properties, better specific strength, bio-degradability and non-abrasive characteristics. The adhesion between the fibers and the matrix highly influence the tensile properties of both thermoset and thermoplastic natural fiber reinforced polymer composites. In order to enhance the tensile properties by improving the strength of fiber and matrix bond many chemical modifications are normally employed. In most cases the tensile strengths of natural fiber reinforced polymer composites are found to increase with higher fiber content, up to a maximum level and then drop, whereas the Young’s modulus continuously increases with increasing fiber loading. It has been experimentally found that tensile strength and Young’s modulus of reinforced composites increased with increase in fiber content [1].


Author(s):  
Pradeep L. Menezes ◽  
Pradeep K. Rohatgi ◽  
Michael R. Lovell

In recent years, significant academic and industrial research and development has explored novel methods of creating green and environmentally friendly materials for commercial applications. Natural fibers offer the potential to develop lower cost products with better performance, sustainability, and renewability characteristics than traditional materials, particularly in the automotive industry. In this respect, natural fiber reinforced polymer composites have emerged as an environmentally friendly and cost-effective option to synthetic fiber reinforced composites. Hence, in this study, a review of the tribological behavior of natural fiber reinforced polymer composites has been undertaken to better understand their usability for various automotive applications.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 1103-1110

There has been a growing interest to produce composite polymeric materialsusing natural fibers as reinforcement. Scientists prefer natural fiber as a reinforced material to make polymer composites due to their bio-degradability characteristics,strong mechanical properties, high specific strength, low cost, non-abrasiveand ecofriendly nature . This review presents the reported work on natural plant based fiber reinforced polymer composites with special reference to the type of natural fibers and host polymers. Various fiber treatments, which are carried out to improve the fiber– hostadhesion, improved mechanical properties that greatly increase the application of these polymer composites specially in automobile industries and bioapplications are highlighted.


2019 ◽  
Vol 39 (7) ◽  
pp. 597-611 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adewale George Adeniyi ◽  
Joshua O. Ighalo ◽  
Damilola Victoria Onifade

Abstract Natural fiber-reinforced polymer composites have been widely explored by many researchers due to their improved modulus and lightness compared to other conventional construction materials such as wood, metal, and steel. Cultivators only harvest banana and plantain fruits for food and leaves for food wrapping. The other portions of the plant are considered as wastes and a potential resource of natural fibers used as reinforcement in composites. Over the years, a plethora of research works has been done on banana and plantain fibers as fillers in plastic composites. Comprehensive catalogues of preparation techniques and mechanical properties were presented. The mechanical properties of banana fiber reinforcement in polyester and epoxy composites were compared to and contrasted with those of other natural fibers to elucidate its superiority or inferiority to those materials. This work gives an overview of the current state of knowledge of banana fiber-reinforced composites alongside the available research gaps.


2017 ◽  
Vol 867 ◽  
pp. 41-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chitra Umachitra ◽  
N.K. Palaniswamy ◽  
O.L. Shanmugasundaram ◽  
P.S. Sampath

Natural fibers have been used to reinforce materials in many composite structures. Many types of natural fibers have been investigated including flax, hemp, ramie, sisal, abaca, banana etc., due to the advantage that they are light weight, renewable resources and have marketing appeal. These agricultural wastes can also be used to prepare fiber reinforced polymer hybrid composites in various combinations for commercial use. Application of composite materials in structural applications has presented the need for the engineering analysis. The present work focuses on the fabrication of polymer matrix composites by using natural fibers like banana and cotton which are abundant in nature and analysing the effect of mechanical properties of the composites on different surface treatments on the fabric. The effect of various surface treatments (NaOH, SLS, KMnO4) on the mechanical properties namely tensile, flexural and impact was analyzed and are discussed in this project. Analysing the material characteristics of the compression moulded composites; their results were measured on sections of the material to make use of the natural fiber reinforced polymer composite material for automotive seat shell manufacturing.


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