Investigation on the Effects of Alkali Treatment on Sisal, Banana, Coir/Glass Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Hybrid Composites

Now a day's natural fiber from renewable natural resources offers the potential to act as reinforcing material for polymer composite alternative to use of carbon and manmade fibers. Among various fibers sisal, banana, coir fiber is most widely used natural fibers due to its easy availability, low density, low production cost and satisfactory mechanical properties. For a composite material, its mechanical behavior depends on many factors such as fiber content, length etc. An attempt is made to study the effect of fiber loading and orientation on mechanical and water absorption behavior of sisal, banana, and coir/glass fiber reinforced epoxy based hybrid composites. A hybrid composite is a combination of two or more different types of fiber in which one type of fiber balance the deficiency of another fiber. Composites of various compositions with different fiber loading and different fiber orientations are fabricated by using the resin transfer molding technique.