Influence of weight content and length of fiber on characteristics of alkali treated luffa-coir hybrid epoxy composites

Abstract

The present work describes the study of different mechanical properties, in which coir-luffa fibers are used as a reinforcing material and the epoxy is used as a resin material and the variation of different mechanical properties with the different fiber loading and different length were studied. Composites were made with one layer (constant for all samples) of Luffa mat content of 10% (by weight) and coir fiber having five different fiber content loading (varying from 10% to 30% with 5% difference) and at five different lengths (varying from 15 mm to 35 mm with 5 mm difference), all the samples are alkali treated (NaOH). Successful test findings from the impact testing, hardness testing, and universal testing machine used to determine mechanical attributes including toughness, hardness, and strength have been used to support it. The test findings show that fiber loading and fiber length have a significant impact on the characteristics of composite materials. The findings also suggest that samples with 35% fiber content and 30 mm fiber length have good mechanical characteristics such as the tensile strength of 38.1 MPa, flexural strength of 41.61 MPa, and impact strength of 23.93 kJ/m³. Finally, the morphology of the fracture surfaces has been studied through SEM.