MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF MILKWEED FIBER REINFORCED COMPOSITES
Keywords:
composites, natural fibers, milkweed fiber, reinforcement, epoxy matrix, mechanical properties.Abstract
The natural fiber reinforced polymer composite materials has gained importance in industrial applications as well as in fundamental research. Natural fibers have recently become attractive to researchers, engineers and scientists as an alternative reinforcement for fiber reinforced polymer composites. Due to their low cost, fairly good mechanical properties, high specific strength, nonabrasive, eco-friendly and bio-degradability characteristics, they are exploited as a replacement for the conventional fiber such as glass, aramid and carbon. The present investigation deals with the most uncommon milkweed fiber reinforced epoxy composites. The milkweed fiber is characterized by very low density, high strength and widely available in southern parts of india. The composites are fabricated by reinforcing 5%, 10%, 15% and 20% milkweed fiber by weight in epoxy matrix. The composites are characterized by testing the mechanical properties as per the standards. The possibility of using the stems of milkweed plant as a source for natural cellulose fibers was explored in this research. The mechanical properties such as tensile stress, flexural stress, hardness, impact and density are evaluated.