SYNTHESIS, FABRICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF JUTE FIBRE REINFORCED LAMINAR COMPOSITES

Development of the composites plays major role in the department of material science. Composites replaced the metals in most of the applications. It is because of their high weight to strength ratio, stiffness and other parameters when compared to the metals. Here the research is concentrated on the fibre reinforced composites. Laminar composites consists of different layers of fibres which are bonded together by using matrix. Laminar composite materials have their applications in various fields like aerospace, aircraft, automobiles etc. Generally used fibres for the reinforcement are E-glass, S-glass, carbon, aluminium, titanium, steel, boron, graphite etc. but owing to their lack of availability and other environmental issues, these days' natural composites are gathering much attention. Since several years, many researchers have significantly worked on the necessity of producing such biodegradable fibre composite materials. There has been a continuous lookout for synthesizing the composites with good mechanical and thermal properties without any compromising. In this work, an attempt has been made in synthesizing composite using biodegradable natural fibres. These fibres are cheap and highly available. So, natural fibres gained attention in the replacement of the fore mentioned fibres. Jute fibres are organic, biodegradable and highly available in nature. They have similar properties to the afore mentioned fibres. The selection of matrix and orientation of the fibre plays a major role in Jute fibre composites. The fibres are the load carrying agents so, the orientation of the fibre plays major role in supporting heavy loads. The woven jute fibre (jute mat) is used as reinforcement for laminar composites. The matrixes used for the study are epoxy resin and polyester. The selection matrix also plays important role in the strength of composites. The resin system used in the research consists of fine fillers and pigments which increased the bonding properties compared to the resins available. The toxicity generally formed during formation of composites but it is eliminated in our research work. The specimens are made layer by layer in different combinations with different layers and resins. The prepared specimens were tested to study the mechanical properties like tensile strength, flexural strength, inter laminar shear strength, impact strength (shock load resistance), compression strength, hardness, elongation at break and the morphological structural studies give the structural formation at micro and Nano levels.