Investigation of Mechanical Properties of Banana-Glass Fiber Reinforced Hybrid Composites

Abstract

Banana stems are very cheap and abundant in nature which can be used to extract fiber. In this paper, banana fiber is used as a reinforcement and epoxy as a matrix to manufacture banana fiber-reinforced epoxy composite. Glass fiber mat, and roving are also used as reinforcement along with banana fiber to manufacture hybrid composites. The objective of this paper is to compare the mechanical properties of hybrid composites with that of pure banana fiber-reinforced composites. The hand lay-up method is used to manufacture all the composites, and tensile and flexural properties are investigated according to the corresponding ASTM standard. It is found that the tensile and flexural strength of banana and glass fiber roving hybrid composites are much higher compared to pure banana fiber-reinforced epoxy composites which make this hybrid composite suitable for low strength application.