Natural fibre composites – an alternative to plastics in the automotive industry: A review

Proceedings of the Institution of Mechanical Engineers Part L Journal of Materials Design and Applications ◽

10.1177/14644207211041622 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 146442072110416

Author(s):

T. Narendiranath Babu ◽

Suraj Shyam ◽

Shivam Kaul ◽

D. Rama Prabha

Keyword(s):

Automotive Industry ◽

Automobile Industry ◽

Natural Fibre ◽

Fibre Composites

Natural fibre composites are ideal material substitutes for combating the issues of pollution and non-biodegradability. Several industries, the automobile industry, in particular, have shown tremendous inclination towards the usage of natural fibre composites in their deliverables. Besides providing a wide array of useful properties, natural fibre composites have offered flexibility in terms of choosing various combinations of fibres and resins. Owing to this, this paper aims to collect data and categorize the natural fibre composites based on the types of treatments and properties they exhibit. Characterization was done by taking into consideration chemical and enzymatic treatments as well as tests such as the tensile, flexural, compressive, impact, shear and hardness. Based on the values obtained from the characterization, the paper suggests suitable and feasible natural fibre composites as biocompatible replacements to conventionally used materials in the automotive industry.

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Adhesively bonded joints of jute, glass and hybrid jute/glass fibre-reinforced polymer composites for automotive industry

Applied Adhesion Science ◽

10.1186/s40563-020-00131-6 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

Author(s):

H. F. M. de Queiroz ◽

M. D. Banea ◽

D. K. K. Cavalcanti

Keyword(s):

Automotive Industry ◽

Failure Load ◽

Natural Fibre ◽

Bonded Joints ◽

Adhesively Bonded ◽

Adhesively Bonded Joints ◽

Reinforced Polymer ◽

Fibre Composites ◽

Bonded Joint ◽

Fibre Reinforced Polymer

AbstractNatural fibre-reinforced composites have attracted a great deal of attention by the automotive industry mainly due to their sustainable characteristics and low cost. The use of sustainable composites is expected to continuously increase in this area as the cost and weight of vehicles could be partially reduced by replacing glass fibre composites and aluminium with natural fibre composites. Adhesive bonding is the preferred joining method for composites and is increasingly used in the automotive industry. However, the literature on natural fibre reinforced polymer composite adhesive joints is scarce and needs further investigation. The main objective of this study was to investigate experimentally adhesively bonded joints made of natural, synthetic and interlaminar hybrid fibre-reinforced polymer composites. The effect of the number of the interlaminar synthetic layers required in order to match the bonded joint efficiency of a fully synthetic GFRP bonded joint was studied. It was found that the failure load of the hybrid jute/glass adherend joints increased by increasing the number of external synthetic layers (i.e. the failure load of hybrid 3-layer joint increased by 28.6% compared to hybrid 2-layer joint) and reached the pure synthetic adherends joints efficiency due to the optimum compromise between the adherend material property (i.e. stiffness and strength) and a diminished bondline peel stress state.

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Experimental analysis of adhesively bonded joints in synthetic- and natural fibre-reinforced polymer composites

Journal of Composite Materials ◽

10.1177/0021998319876979 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 54 (9) ◽

pp. 1245-1255 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

HFM de Queiroz ◽

MD Banea ◽

DKK Cavalcanti

Keyword(s):

Polymer Composites ◽

Automotive Industry ◽

Natural Fibre ◽

Lap Joints ◽

Bonded Joints ◽

Adhesively Bonded ◽

Adhesively Bonded Joints ◽

Reinforced Polymer ◽

Fibre Composites ◽

Fibre Reinforced Polymer

The application of adhesively bonded joints in automotive industry has increased significantly in recent years mainly because of the potential for lighter weight vehicles, fuel savings and reduced emissions. The use of composites in making automotive body components to achieve a reduced vehicle mass has also continuously increased. Natural fibre composites have recently attracted a great deal of attention by the automotive industry due to their many attractive benefits (e.g. high strength-to-weight ratio, sustainable characteristics and low cost). However, the literature on natural fibre-reinforced polymer composite adhesive joints is scarce and needs further investigation. The main objective of this study was to evaluate and compare the mechanical performance of adhesively bonded joints made of synthetic- and natural fibre-reinforced polymer composites. Similar and dissimilar single lap joints bonded with a modern tough structural adhesive used in the automotive industry, as well as the epoxy resin AR260 (the same resin used in composite fabrication) were tested. It was found that the average failure loads varied significantly with adhesive material strength and adherend stiffness. Furthermore, it was also observed that failure mode has a significant effect in failure load. The jute-based natural fibre composites joints, both hybrid and purely natural, were superior in strength compared to the sisal-based natural composites joints.

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Composites made from cellulose-based materials and thermoplastics (usually called wood-polymer composites (WPC) or natural fibre composites (NFC))

10.3403/30266174 ◽

2014 ◽

Keyword(s):

Polymer Composites ◽

Natural Fibre ◽

Wood Polymer ◽

Fibre Composites ◽

Wood Polymer Composites

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Composites made from cellulose-based materials and thermoplastics (usually called wood-polymer composites (WPC) or natural fibre composites (NFC))

10.3403/30266171 ◽

2014 ◽

Keyword(s):

Polymer Composites ◽

Natural Fibre ◽

Wood Polymer ◽

Fibre Composites ◽

Wood Polymer Composites

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Composites made from cellulose-based materials and thermoplastics (usually called wood-polymer composites (WPC) or natural fibre composites (NFC))

10.3403/bsen15534 ◽

2015 ◽

Keyword(s):

Polymer Composites ◽

Natural Fibre ◽

Wood Polymer ◽

Fibre Composites ◽

Wood Polymer Composites

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Fabrication and Characterization of Biocomposite Using Grewia Optiva Fibre (i.e. Bhimal) Reinforced Polyvinyl Alcohol (PVA)

Advanced Materials Research ◽

10.4028/www.scientific.net/amr.1105.51 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 1105 ◽

pp. 51-55 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

K.M. Gupta ◽

Kishor Kalauni

Keyword(s):

Mechanical Properties ◽

Tensile Strength ◽

Natural Fibre ◽

Fabrication Method ◽

View Point ◽

Engineering Material ◽

Fibre Composites ◽

Grewia Optiva ◽

Fabrication And Characterization

Bhimal fibres are quite a newer kind of bio-degradable fibres. They have never been heard before in literatures from the view point of their utility as engineering material. These fibres have been utilized for investigation of their properties. Characterization of this fibre is essential to determine its properties for further use as reinforcing fibre in polymeric, bio-degradable and other kinds of matrix. With this objective, the fabrication method and other mechanical properties of Bhimal-reinforced-PVA biocomposite have been discussed. The stress-strain curves and load-deflection characteristics are obtained. The tensile, compressive, flexure and impact strengths have been calculated. The results are shown in tables and graphs. The results obtained are compared with other existing natural fibre biocomposites. From the observations, it has been concluded that the tensile strength of Bhimal-reinforced-PVA biocomposite is higher than other natural fibre composites. Hence these can be used as reinforcement to produce much lighter weight biocomposites.

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