CHARACTERIZATION OF NATURAL FIBER REINFORCED POLYMER COMPOSITE

Polymeric materials reinforced with synthetic fibers such as glass, carbon, and aramid provide advantages of high stiffness and strength to weight ratio as compared to conventional construction materials, i.e. Wood, concrete and steel. Despite these advantages, the widespread use of synthetic fiber-reinforced polymer composite has a tendency to decline because of their high-initial costs, their use in non-efficient structural forms and most importantly their adverse environmental impact. This work is concerned with the testing of mechanical properties on natural fiber (coconut and palm fiber) reinforced composite materials. Composites are fabricated by using chemically untreated coconut and palm fiber with epoxy resin and chemically treated coconut and palm fiber with epoxy resin. The fibers are treated with 5% of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) for one hour and the specimens were fabricated by hand lay technique. The fiber content in the composite is kept constant to 30% of weight ratio. The mechanical properties are tested on the specimen and the results are compared.