Journal of Material Science & Manufacturing Technology

Volume 4 Issue 2

Analysis of Mechanical Properties of Natural Waste Particle

Reinforced Polymer Composites

A. Sujin Jose **, S. A. Ananthapuri*, G.Godwin*

New Horizon College of Engineering Banglore**, India, Lourdes Mount College of Engineering and
Technology, K.K.Dist, India*
Corresponding Author’s E-mail: sujinjoseer@gmail.com*
DOI:- http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3241699

Abstract
Natural Fiber-reinforced polymer composites have played a dominant role
for a long time in a variety of applications for their high specific strength
and modulus. Natural fibers are not only strong and lightweight but also
relatively very cheap. Due to this, researchers have focused their attention
on natural fiber composite (i.e. bio-composites) which are composed of
natural or synthetic resins, reinforced with natural fibers. The present work
describes the development and characterization of a new set of natural
fiber based polymer composites consisting of coconut coir as reinforcement
and polyester resin. The newly developed composites were characterized
with respect to their mechanical properties. The effect of fiber content on
mechanical behavior of these polyester based polymer composites were
studied by experiments. This paper deals with the development of coir
composites and their mechanical properties.

Keywords: - Polyester resin, coir fiber, mechanical behavior.

INTRODUCTION recognized as being a composite material.

Composite Materials Composites are materials that comprise
Composite materials consist of two or strong load carrying material
more constituents with physically (reinforcement) imbedded in weaker
separable phase. However, only when the material (matrix). Reinforcement gives
composite phase materials have notably more strength and rigidity, helping to
different physical properties it is support structural load.The matrix or
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 Journal of Material Science & Manufacturing Technology
Volume 4 Issue 2

binder (organic or inorganic) maintains the disposability and renewability. Moreover,

position and orientation of
reinforcement.
Natural Fiber Reinforced Composites
The interest in natural fiber-reinforced
polymer composite materials is rapidly
growing in terms of their both industrial
applications and research. They are cheap,
renewable, completely or partially
recyclable, and biodegradable. Plants, such
as hemp, jute, sisal, cotton, kenaf, flax,
pineapple, bamboo, banana, ramie, etc., as
well as wood, used from time immemorial
as a source of lingo cellulosic fibers, are
more and more often applied as the
reinforcement of composites.
renewability, ease of use, low density, and
price as well as agreeable mechanical
properties make them an attractive
ecological alternate material to carbon
fibers, glass fibers and man-made fibers
used to the manufacture of composites.
The composites which contain natural
fiber are more environmentally friendly,
and are used in transportation such as
automobiles, railway coaches, aerospace,
military applications, and construction
industries (ceiling paneling, partition
boards), packaging, consumer products,
etc. Natural fibers have more advantages
than synthetic fibers due to low density,
stiffness, mechanical strengths,
the they are biodegradable and eco-friendly.
Lot of investigations has been carried on
the use of natural fibers in reinforcements.
Coir fiber is a ligno-cellulosic fiber,
obtained from the coconut fruit is a best
fiber and it has relatively good mechanical
properties.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Materials
The raw materials used in this work
1. Coir pith
2. Polyester resin
3. Methyl Ethyl Ketone Peroxide
4. Cobalt
Their
1. Coir pith
Coir is granular particles extracted from
the shell of coconut. The harvested
coconuts are split and the inner kernel is
extracted for getting Coconut oil. The pith
and shell is dried and then broken down to
extract the fiber. In this process the
particles that were between the fibers were
used traditionally to be tilled in clay soil to
loosening the soil. Nowadays the dust of
coconut fiber has been processed and
packaged in different compressed forms
sold as coir.
high

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 Journal of Material Science & Manufacturing Technology
Volume 4 Issue 2

Figure 1: Coir Fiber particles

2. Polyester resin Specimen Preparation

Isothalic polyester resin made by CIBA (a) Coir fiber preparation
GEIGY limited having the following Fresh coir fibers were extracted from
outstanding properties has been used as the coconut. These fibers were then swell on a
matrix material. water proof sheet and stored in an enclosed
a) Excellent adhesion to different shed to reduce the moisture particles. After
materials. two weeks, the long coir fibers were
powdered into a size of 400-600 microns,
b) High resistance to chemical and Due to the low moisture content of the coir
atmospheric attack. powders, no fungi grew during the storage.

c) High dimensional stability. (b) Specimen preparation

A wooden mold of dimension
d) Free from internal stresses. (120x100x6) mm was used for casting the
composite sample sheets. The first set of
e) Excellent mechanical and electrical samples was manufactured with 10, 20, 30,
properties. and 40 % volume fraction of fiber content.
Hand lay-up technique was used for
f) Odourless, tasteless and completely preparing the samples. For different
nontoxic. volume proportion of fibers, a calculated
amount of polyester resin and Cobalt (ratio
g) Negligible shrinkage. of 10:1 by weight) was thoroughly mixed
with gentle stirring to minimize air
trapping. Then the correct volume of fibers
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 Journal of Material Science & Manufacturing Technology
was distributed into the resin mixture.
Mansion polish wax was applied over the
inner surface of mould box for quick and
easy removal of composite sheets. The
composite blend was then poured into the
mold. Suitable care should be taken while
pouring the composite mixture into the
mould box to avoid the formation of air
bubbles. After pouring the mixture into the
mold, a glass sheet (thin sheet) was placed
on it for getting smooth surface. Pressure
was applied to the mold and it was allowed
to cure at room temperature for 72 hrs.
This procedure was repeated for the
preparation of different proportions such
as 10, 20, 30 and 40% fiber volume
fractions of composite samples. The
samples were taken out from the mold
after 72 hrs and cut into different sizes as
per ASTM standards and kept in air tight
container for further experimentation.
Hand Lay –Up Method
Hand lay-up is an open molding method
suitable for making a wide variety of
composites products such as boats,
housings, truck/auto components, tanks
bath ware, architectural products and many
other products ranging from very small to
large. Production volume is low; however,
it is possible to produce substantial
production quantities using several molds.
Simple, single-cavity molds of fiberglass
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Volume 4 Issue 2
composites construction are generally
used. Molds range can varies from very
small to very large and are low cost in the
spectrum of soft composites molds. Gel
paint is first applied to the mold using a
spray gun for getting fine surface quality.
After the gel coat has cured adequately,
fiberglass reinforcement is physically
placed over the mold. The lamination resin
is applied over the fiber by pouring,
spraying, brushing, or using a paint roller.
For laminate, thoroughly wetting the
reinforcement and removing entrapped air
FRP rollers, paint rollers, or squeegees are
used. Subsequent layers of fiberglass
reinforcement are added to build laminate
thickness (Fig 2.1). Simplest method
offering simple processing, low-cost
tooling and wide range of part sizes are the
major advantages of this process. The
investment is minimum for equipment.
With skilled operators, good production
rates consistent quality is obtainable.
Figure 2: Fabrication of specimens
 Journal of Material Science & Manufacturing Technology
Volume 4 Issue 2

RESULT &DISCUSSIONS Effect of Fiber content on Micro-

Mechanical Characteristics of hardness
Composites The measured hardness values of all the
The characterization of the composites four composites are presented in Figure. It
reveals that the fiber content is having can be seen that the hardness is decreasing
significant effect on the mechanical with the increase in fiber content upto
properties of composite samples. 60%. However further increase in fiber
content increases the micro hardness
value.

Figure 3: Effect of fiber content on tensile strength of composites

Figure 4: Effect of fiber content on tensile modulus of composites

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 Journal of Material Science & Manufacturing Technology
Volume 4 Issue 2

Figure 5: Effect of fiber content on flexural strength of composites

Figure 6: Effect of fiber content on impact strength of composites

Effect of Fiber content on Tensile possibility is that the chemical reaction at

Properties
The test results for tensile strengths and
moduli are shown in the Figures 3 and 4
respectively. From this, the tensile strength
of the composite increases with increase in
fiber contents, there can be two reasons for
this increase in the strength properties of
these composites compared. One
the interface between the filler particles
and the matrix may be too strong to
transfer the tensile. From Figure 4 it is
clear that with the increase in fiber content
the tensile moduli of the coir pith
reinforced polyester composites increases
gradually. It is also observed that the
progressive decrease in tensile strength

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 Journal of Material Science & Manufacturing Technology
Volume 4 Issue 2

with increasing fiber loading more than improves with increase in fiber contents as
30-wt% as shown in Fig. 3. The tensile shown in Figure 6 High strain rates or
strength of the composite depends on the impact loads may be expected in many
adhesion between the matrix and engineering applications of composite
reinforcement. Due to the increase of fiber materials.
content beyond a certain level, the bonding
between the matrix and reinforcement may CONCLUSION
be poor. This could cause the increase of This experimental exploration of
the brittleness of the composite and it mechanical behaviour of coconut coir
should be affect the tensile properties of reinforced polyester composites leads to
the composites. the following conclusions:

Effect of Fiber contents on Flexural This work shows that successful

Strength fabrication of a coir pith reinforced
Figure 5 shows the comparison of flexural polyester composites with different fiber
strengths of the composites obtained contents is possible by simple hand lay-up
experimentally from the flexural bend method. It has been notified that the
tests. It is appealing to note that flexural mechanical properties of the composites
strength increases with increase in fiber such as tensile, flexural, impact strengths,
content. Beyond the level of 30 wt % of and micro-hardness, etc. of the composites
fiber content the flexural properties are also greatly influenced by the fiber
decreased due the insufficient bonding of contents.
matrix and fiber. This could cause the
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XIX. Prasad SV, Pavithran C, Rohatgi Cite this Article As

PK, “Alkali treatment of coir fibers
A. Sujin Jose, S. A. Ananthapuri,
for coir-polyester composites”, G.Godwin (2019). “Analysis of
Mechanical Properties of Natural
Journal of Materials Science, 18,
Waste Particle Reinforced Polymer
1983, pp. 1443- 1454. Composites” Journal of Material Science
& Manufacturing Technology, 4(2), 13-
22

http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3241699
AUTHORS’ PROFILE
[1] A. Sujin J, Associate Professor
Department: Automobile Engineering
College: New Horizon College of Engineering Banglore, India
Email Id: sujinjoseer@gmail.com

[2] S. A. Ananthapuri, Assistant Professor

Department: Mechanical Engineering
College: Lourdes Mount College of Engineering and Technology,K.K.Dist, India
Email Id: asasujin4@gmail.com

[3] G. Godwin, Assistant Professor

Department: Mechanical Engineering
College: Lourdes Mount College of Engineering and Technology,K.K.Dist, India
Email Id: godwin11g@gmail.com

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