Materials Today: Proceedings 21 (2020) 52–55

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Materials Today: Proceedings

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/matpr

Evaluation of mechanical properties of palm fiber/glass fiber and epoxy

combined hybrid composite laminates
K. Raju ⇑, M. Balakrishnan
M.Kumarasamy College of Engineering, Karur 639113, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The aim of this project is to prepare a polymer matrix composite with epoxy resin as matrix reinforced
Received 12 May 2019 with glass and palm fiber for reducing the weight and increasing the hardness and strength of compo-
Received in revised form 29 May 2019 nents for automotives. From the results obtained it is noted that by increasing the phase ratio of fiber par-
Accepted 30 May 2019
ticles the tensile strength of the composite is increased. From flexural test, it is concluded that hybrid
Available online 23 July 2019
fiber shows more advantage than the available composite. Similarly hardness test represents that the
composite can be utilized for high strength to low weight applications. Thus the prepared composite is
Keywords:
eco-friendly in nature with low cost.
Epoxy resin
Glass fiber
Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Palm fiber Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Recent
Tensile Trends in Nanomaterials for Energy, Environmental and Engineering Applications.
Hardness
Automotive
Eco-friendly

1. Introduction
A composite is made of two materials where there is a reinforcing
phase in the form of fibers which is put into the other phase called
the matrix phase. The reinforcement can be metal, ceramic, or poly-
mer. The fiber particle may be continuous or discontinuous which is
a load carrying member supported by matrix. The matrix is flexible
than fiber which accounts for the toughness of the composite.
Bindu et al. [1] investigated the influence of tensile strength and
flexural properties of short fiber composites and concluded that
the increase in fiber volume increases the mechanical properties
of the composites. Dabade B. M. et al. [2] developed hemp and Pal-
myra fiber on polyester matrix by varying the ratio of fiber lengths
and weight. The variation of fiber length and weight accounts for
improvement of different properties. Chabba et al. [3] analysed
the modified cross linking of soy flour with glutaraldehyde and
reported that, tensile and thermal properties are sufficient for
indoor structural applications of biodegradable green composites.
Mishra et al. [4] presented a Palm and glass composites of
polypropylene matrix with fiber to plastic ratio of 40:60 and at dif-
ferent proportions by weight. This shows good effect on the elastic
modulus. The impact strength of these palm and glass composites
⇑ Corresponding author.
E-mail address: rajupty@gmail.com (K. Raju).
has been found to be more than matrix [5]. Also the water absorp-
tion rate was also low compared to unpalm and glassified compos-
ite. Mohanty et al. [6]. Observed the effects of NaOH treatment and
tri methoxysilane treatment on the impact and compressive prop-
erties of these Palm and glass composites. There was a variation in
tensile strength of unsaturated polyester based Palm and glass–
palm composites with fiber loading. Mukherjee and Satyanarayana
[7] studied the stress strain curve of natural fiber and stated that
the weak primary cell wall of fiber gets collapses and decohesion
of fiber takes place by increasing the applied stress. Rao et al. [8]
studied about vakka a new natural fiber which was used as fillers
in a polymeric matrix composite for load carrying structures and
lightweight applications. An investigation on tensile, flexural and
dielectric properties of composites was made and compared with
those of established composites like Palm and glass, bamboo and
palm and glass made as with same methods. Priya et al. [9] studied
the tensile strength of these palm and glass composites and found
palm and glass composites has higher properties than matrix. The
mechanical properties of these composites were found to increase
by increasing the fabric content. There was also good chemical
resistance and interfacial bonding between matrix and the
reinforcement which was examined using Scanning Electron
Microscope. Samrat et al. [10] reported the variability of mechan-
ical properties of palm and glass fibers with respect to diameter,
testing speed and gauge length [11]. The findings on palm and

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.05.359
2214-7853/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Recent Trends in Nanomaterials for Energy, Environmental and Engineering
Applications.
 K. Raju, M. Balakrishnan / Materials Today: Proceedings 21 (2020) 52–55 53

glass fibers showed improvement for the fibers when the speed is Table 1
increased with lower density and higher gauge lengths reduces the Properties Of Glass Fibre.

properties due to flaws increase in the structure. Properties Glass Fibre

Satyanarayana et al. [12] analyzed the properties of fibers from 3
Density (kg/m ) 2500
different parts of coconut tree and reported that the internal struc- Flexural modulus (GPa) 2–5
ture and chemical composition such as cellulose plays vital role in Tensile strength (MPa) 54
its properties. Sapuan et al. [13] Investigated the tensile and flexu- Young’s modulus (GPa) 3.4878

ral properties of Palm and glass/Epoxy woven natural fiber com-

posite. 3 samples were prepared and subjected to Statistical
analysis using ANOVA-where the results obtained are not signifi-
cant, which shows stable mechanical behavior of the composites.
Harish et al. [14] investigates the effect of palm and glass fiber
palm with polypropylene matrix. Incorporating the results shows
that the tensile, thermal, water resistant and impact strength
was enhanced by adding palm and glass fiber to the composites.

2. Materials and methods

In our study, the matrix material taken was epoxy resin 70 per-
centage and the reinforcements were selected as glass fiber 15 per-
centage and palm fiber 15 percentage. The epoxy resin used in our
study is LY556 and the hardener is HY951. The Palm fiber used is Fig. 2. Photograph of palm fiber.
dried and brushed for fiber quality without moisture content. Arti-
ficial drying result in better properties than sun drying.

Table 2
2.1. Glass fiber
Properties of palm Fibre.

Glass fibers mostly used are expensive as all fibers. The compos- Properties Palm Fibre
ite material is 15% glass fiber reinforced plastic (Fig. 1 and Table 1). 3
Density (kg/m ) 1450
Flexural modulus (GPa) 12.5–17.5
Tensile strength (MPa) 68
2.2. Palm fiber Young’s modulus (GPa) 3.774

Fiber is extracted by a process known as decortications, where

leaves are crushed and beaten by a rotating wheel set with blunt
knives, so that only fibers remain. Dry fibers are machine combed
and sorted into various grades, largely on the basis of the previous
in-field separation of leaves into size groups. The Palm fiber used is
dried and brushed for fiber quality without moisture content
(Fig. 2 and Table 2).

2.3. Mould Preparation

To prepare the composite the hybrid fiber is sized into a

required number of plies of size 350  350 mm. The hand lay up
method is used to prepare the composite. The hybrid fiber is kept
at top and bottom of the laminate. The natural fibers are sized to
desired length and kept in between the laminates. The natural fiber
weighing around 15–20 g is spread in the laminate. In hybrid Fig. 3. Photograph of mould preparation.
composite the plies are aligned in the order of intermediate hybrid
fiber and natural fiber (Figs. 3 and 4 and Table 3).

Fig. 1. Photograph of fiber glass. Fig. 4. Photograph of prepared composite.

54 K. Raju, M. Balakrishnan / Materials Today: Proceedings 21 (2020) 52–55
Table 3
Composition of Prepared Composites.
Composite Composition
C1 Epoxy 85% + glass fiber 15%
C2 Epoxy 90% + Palm fiber 15%
C3 Epoxy 70% + glass fiber 15% + Palm fiber 15%
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Tensile test
Tension test is made by holding the test specimen between
cross-heads. By adjusting the lower and upper cross heads the
specimen can be held tightly for the test. The 100KN universal test-
ing machine was used for the test.
The tensile strength of composite with glass fiber reinforcement
from Fig. 5 shows 96 MPa which is 17% higher compared to the
composite with palm fiber as reinforcement of value 82 MPa. Sim-
ilarly when comparing the hybrid reinforcement of value 120 MPa
with palm fiber reinforced composite, there is an increase of 46%.
When comparing the hybrid reinforced composite with glass fiber
reinforcement, the tensile strength is also increased by 25%.
3.2. Impact test
The izod impact test was conducted to study the energy absorb-
ing capacity of the composite.
The impact test results of glass fiber reinforced composite
shows 27.4% increased values compared to the composite with
palm fiber as reinforcement with value 116 J and 91 J. The hybrid
reinforcement with glass and palm fiber shows 108 J which is
18.6% increase with palm fiber reinforced composite as in Fig. 6.
Fig. 5. Tensile strength of prepared composite.
Fig. 6. Impact strength of prepared composite.
Fig. 7. Hardness value of prepared composite.
But when comparing the hybrid reinforcement with glass rein-
forcement, there is a 6.9% decrease in its values.
3.3. Hardness test
The material to be tested is held on the anvil of the machine and
then the suitable indenter is to be fixed on the chuck. A minor load
of 10 kg is applied to seat the specimen. Then the dial indicator is
set at zero. Now the major load 100 kg is applied to the indenter to
produce a deeper indentation. The hardness value is noted which is
displayed on the indicator.
The hardness value of 99 HRB for glass reinforced composite
shows 26.9% increase when compared with palm fiber reinforce-
ment of value 78 HRB. Similarly the hybrid reinforcements with
hardness value 102 HRB shows 30.7 increase with palm fiber rein-
forced composite. Comparing the hardness value of glass fiber rein-
forcement and hybrid reinforcement, the hybrid reinforcement
shows an increase in its value by 3% as shown in Fig. 7.
4. Conclusion
Bio-composites were prepared with the help of hybrid fiber and
epoxy and hardener using handmade mould. The analyzed result
shows that the new composite fabricated with NaOH treated fiber
have high strength than the other composite materials.
Tensile strength results specify that the ratio of both glass and
palm fiber addition to the composite shows higher tensile strength
compared to individual reinforcement of palm and glass fiber
composite.
The impact strength shows a lower value for hybrid composite
where the glass fiber reinforcement shows higher strength than
other composites.
Hardness test also represents that the composite with both
palm and glass reinforcement has higher hardness compared to
the other individual reinforcements.
The automobile components can be replaced by this hybrid
composites of glass and palm fiber reinforcements for low cost
and easy decomposition ability. Further the proportion of rein-
forcement can be varied and analysed for different properties.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to record their sincere thanks to the manage-
ment of M. Kumarasamy College of Engineering, for providing their
supports in carrying out this research.
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