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Mechanical Behavior of Alkali Treated Coir Fiber and Rice Husk Reinforced Epoxy Composites

Gopinath. S, K. Senthil Vadivu

Studies on the use of natural fibers as replacement to man-made fiber in fiber-reinforced composites have increased and opened up further industrial possibilities. Natural fiber-reinforcced composites can be applied in the plastics, automobile and packaging industries to cut down on material cost. So in this work, natural fibers such as coir fiber and rice husk are selected as reinforced in epoxy resin. Brown coir fibers and rice husk are treated with 6% of NaOH separately to increase the fiber strength and the treated natural fibers are reinforced in epoxy matrix to fabricate the composite. The ratio in which the coir fiber and rice husk are mixed is varied and the tensile behavior of composites made from various combination ratios are analyzed. Factors such as tensile strength, elongation at the break are determined and the ratio with optimum mechanical strength characteristic is predicted. Significant difference is found on the mechanical properties of various combinations.