Revista de Ciências e Engenharia de Materiais

Study and Characterization of Flexural and Tensile Properties of Hybrid Bamboo/Sisal Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Composite

Abstract

Sheleme Mosisa and Belete Sirhabizu

Bamboo and Sisal fibers are among the most common used reinforcement materials in the fabrication of new natural fiber based composite materials. In this work, an attempt is made to fabricate, characterize and analyze the mechanical property of hybrid sisal/bamboo fibers reinforced epoxy matrix composite. The fibers were manually extracted from sisal and bamboo plants. After extraction, bamboo and sisal fibers were chemically treated with 8% and 5% sodium hydroxide respectively, to remove the extra lignin and hemicelluloses so that the bond and interfacial, shear strength of the fibres can be improved. The experiment was conducted based on Taguchi experimental method by considering weight fraction of hybrid sisal/bamboo fibers, fibers orientation and curing temperature as basic parameters which affect product strength. Hand lay-up and compression techniques were employed in the fabrication of the experimental composite. The tensile and flexural strength tests of the experimental hybrid sisal/bamboo fiber reinforced epoxy matrix composites were determined by taking samples as per the ASTM standard. The result revealed that, the bamboo–sisal fiber reinforced epoxy composites fabricated with 25/25% weight fraction of sisal to bamboo fibers, fibers stacked unidirectional and cured at 25°C demonstrate a high tensile and bending strength.