Investigation of mechanical properties for coconut coir and tamarind fiber reinforced composite materials

Abstract

Now a day's fiber reinforced composite materials plays a dominant role for variety of applications due their high specific strength and modulus. The composite materials are prepared in three different combination of fiber and epoxy resin. The first combination is epoxy 60%, coir 30% and tamarind 10%, second combination is epoxy 60%, coir 20% and tamarind 20% and the third combination epoxy 60%, coir 10% and tamarind 30%. The fiber which serves as a reinforcement in reinforced plastic material is usually synthetic or natural. The literature studies shows that synthetic fibers such as glass, carbon etc., have been used in fiber-reinforced plastics. The composite materials are tested by various testing like impact test, hardness test and tensile test for different combination composite materials. From the test results the mechanical properties like elongation, hardness and load carrying capacity of these composite materials are evaluated. The results clearly indicate that the inclusion of natural fibers improves the load bearing capacity. It is found that flexural strength (maximum load carrying capacity 9.1kN with a deflection of 16.8mm) for specimen at coir 10% and tamarind 30% was better among all combination. The tensile strength (8.35kN with deflection of 9.014mm) for specimen at coir 30% and tamarind 10% was better among all combination. The impact test result shows that impact strength (76) for specimen at coir 10% and tamarind 30% was better among all combination. By comparing all the three combination of composite material, the third combination (epoxy 60%, coir 10% and tamarind 30%) of composite material have good mechanical properties is showed.