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ABSTRACT

Over the past few decades polymers are used as a suitable


replacement for conventional materials. The extensive usage of polymers
makes it difficult to avoid its usage, even though it causes environmental
problems. To improve the properties of polymers, fibres are reinforced with
them to form polymer matrix composites. Properties of fibre reinforced
polymers can be tailor made to suit the need of specific application. Glass
fibres and Carbon fibres are commonly used as reinforcement with polymers
to form polymer based composites. These fibre reinforced polymers are
particularly used in sectors like automotive and aerospace industries where
light weight - strength requirements play an important role. Natural fibres
play an important role in developing high performance biodegradable green
composites, which will be a key material to solve environmental problems in
the future. Fibres are mainly classified into two types, namely natural fibres
and synthetic fibres. Natural fibres are obtained from plants, animals and their
products, and synthetic fibres are prepared from chemicals. Natural fibres are
easily available, low cost, recyclable, and they reduce carbon emission. But
the mechanical properties of natural fibres are inferior to that of synthetic
fibres. Most of the natural fibres are hydrophilic in nature, i.e. they tend to
absorb moisture from the environment. These issues can be addressed by
hybridizing the natural fibre with synthetic fibres. The banana plant is one of
the largest cultivated plants in India. The fibres extracted from it are currently
used for making bags, purses and other ornamental items. In this work, hybrid
fibre reinforced composites are developed by using Banana fibre and Glass
fibre as reinforced in Epoxy matrix.
Initially, Fracture analysis of the hybrid composite was performed
to evaluate fracture toughness of the composite. The ability to resist defect
propagation is characterized by the fracture toughness of the material.
Experiments were conducted to find Intralaminar fracture toughness. Fibres of
various lengths (5, 10, 15 and 20mm) and volume fractions(5%, 10%, 15%,

20% and 25%) were used to predict the effect of these parameters on Mode I,
Mode II and Mixed mode fracture failure. Both the Banana fibre and glass
fibre were mixed at equal ratio. From this work it is found that 20mm fibre
length and 20% volume fraction provide higher value of fracture toughness.
Increasing the fibre length beyond 20mm does not greatly increase the
fracture toughness values. Also, Composites were developed by mixing
Banana fibre and Glass fibre at different ratio of volume fractions (0.0-1.0,
0.25-0.75, 0.50-0.50, 0.75-0.25 and 1.0-0.0) and the effect of relative fibre
content on the fracture toughness was analysed. It is found that the increase in
Glass fibre in the composite resulted in an increase of the fracture toughness.
But it is also noted that the fracture toughness of composite with a fibre ratio
of 50% each is closer to that of pure glass fibre composite. Fractography
analysis revealed the fibre breakage, fibre pull out from the matrix and matrix
crack.
Fibres of various lengths (5, 10, 15 and 20mm) and volume
fractions (5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25%) were used to predict the effect of
these parameters on the tensile, flexural, impact, hardness, and water
absorption properties. For all the composites both the fibres were mixed at
equal volume fraction. From this work, it is found that 15mm fibre length and
20% volume fraction provide better mechanical properties. Further, water
absorption test shows that increasing the fibre content increases the water
absorption rate rather than fibre length. The void content present in the hybrid
composite was estimated by comparing the theoretical density and actual
density of the composite. It is found that increase in fibre volume fraction
resulted in an increase of void content. Further, fractography analysis also
shows that increasing the fibre content above 20 volume percentage decreases
the fibre-matrix adhesion.
Experimentally determined tensile properties of the composite from
the above work were compared with various theories of reinforcement.
Various reinforcement models used for the comparison purpose are Rule of

Hybrid Mixtures, Hirsch, Halpin-Tsai equation, Nielson (Modified HalpinTsai equation), Modified Bowyer and Baders method. The comparison was
made with the assumption that composites have uniform shape of the fibre
and the void content is negligible. Of the various mathematical models used
for comparison, it is found that the tensile properties predicted by Modified
Bowyer and Baders are in close agreement with the experimental values.
This closeness is due to the introduction of fibre orientation parameter (K 1)
and fibre length parameter (K2) in the equation. Next, closer value was
predicted by Nielson model, since it uses the packing fraction as parameter to
calculate the tensile properties.
Woven fibre composites were developed by changing the layering
sequence of banana fibre and glass fibre. Effect of layering sequence on the
mechanical properties of the woven Banana/Glass hybrid composite was
examined. It shows that tensile strength and Impact strength are independent
of layering sequence. But, flexural strength and water absorption behaviour
are greatly affected by layering arrangement. From the SEM image analysis, it
is found that the failure of composite occurs at the interface between the
layers of the fabrics.
Fibre surface was treated with various concentrations of NaOH to
analyse the effect of surface modification on mechanical, moisture absorption
behaviour of the composite. The various percentages of NaOH used are
1,2,5,10 and 20. Experimental analysis shows that out of the various
percentages of NaOH concentration, 2% NaOH results in better properties.
Further, increasing the alkali concentration above 2% causes damages to the
fibre surface and which results in decreasing the properties of the composite.
SEM image analysis also confirms the above stand.

On comparing the

storage modulus of the untreated, 2% NaOH and 5% NaOH treated


composite, it was found that the alkali treatment increases the storage
modulus rather than untreated composite. Further, it was observed that

increasing the frequency, the tan peak was shifted to a higher temperature
irrespective of fibre type.
Since fastening is one of the most widely used assembly operations
in many components, it becomes important to assess the components hole
quality during the drilling process. Hence, as a novel attempt, the hole quality
analysis was carried out using machine vision image analysis to find image
quality. The hole quality was examined by varying speed (700, 1400 and 2100
rpm) and feed (0.05, 0.12 and 0.20 mm/rev). It shows that delamination is
minimum at low speed and feed. Further, ANOVA analysis shows that feed
rate affects the delamination factor more than speed.
Soil burial test was conducted to evaluate bio degradability of the
hybrid composites. It is found that the bio degradability of the hybrid
composite is better than pure glass fibre composite.
After carrying out various tests, it is found that fracture toughness
increases with increase in fibre length and volume fraction. Optimum value of
fibre length and fibre volume fraction is 20mm and 20% respectively. Out of
total fibre volume fraction, banana fibre and glass fibre constitute 50% each.
The optimum mechanical properties are provided by the fibres of
length 15mm and 20% volume fraction for randomly oriented composite. For
the case of woven composite, arranging the glass fibre at the extremes
provides better mechanical properties with lower water absorption. Of the
various treatment percentages of NaOH, it is found that the 2% NaOH
provides best mechanical properties. Hole quality analysis shows that
delamination is minimum at low speed and feed, and the delamination factor
is influenced more by feed rate than speed.

Originality/Novelty in the research work


Characterisation of fracture toughness for short, random oriented fibre
composites has not been reported widely. Especially, evaluation of fracture
toughness of hybrid composites has never been reported.
Researchers concentrated only on interlaminar fracture toughness, this will be
useful only for laminated composite materials. Whereas, for short, random
oriented fibre composites intralaminar fracture toughness is appropriate. Intra
laminar fracture toughness under mode I, mode II and mixed mode (mode I +
II) failures is reported in this work.
Epoxy resin is reinforced with banana fibre and glass fibre to form hybrid
composite. This is the new composite material with potential application for
automotive industries. Earlier attempts have been made to form hybrid
composite using polyester resin. But Epoxy is better in terms of stiffness,
strength and thermal stability.
The water absorption behaviour of Epoxy is better than Polyester, this makes
it a suitable candidate for developing natural fibre based hybrid composites.
Epoxy composite reinforced with banana and glass fibre was not developed
earlier.
The drilled hole quality analysis was performed by machine vision technique,
NI labview software was used for the purpose of image processing. This is a
novel method to assess the hole quality. Usually ultrasonic C-Scan is
employed to find the drilled hole damages for composites.
Bio degradation of natural fibre based hybrid composites was not reported
earlier. The effect of addition of banana fibre with glass fibre on the bio
degradation was not performed previously.

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