Mechanical Behaviour Assessment of Banana Fibres Reinforced Polymeric Composite with Aluminium-Powder Filler

The development of newer materials necessitates bringing composite material as an alternative to conventional materials usage in engineering applications. An especially Natural Fibre-Reinforced Plastic (FRP) finds their role in the modern era. Before applying natural FRP in the industry, the investigation of mechanical behaviour and related application tests are essential for the better replacement of existing materials. The present work studies banana natural reinforced plastics with aluminium powder as to facilitate the use in an automotive body components. The composite was fabricated from banana fibre-filled Aluminium powder (Al-Powder) through a resin-hardener mixture by simple hand lay-up technique using compression mold. The samples were fabricated on a fixed weight percentage of banana fibres by varying Al-powder filler of 5, 10 and 15wt% to analyse the mechanical and physical properties. Four samples i.e., banana FRP composite (sample 'A'), banana FRP filled 5wt% of Al-powder filler (sample 'B'), 10wt% Al -powder filler (sample 'C'), and 15wt% Al-powder filler (Sample 'D') were used respectively. Tensile strength, compression strength, density, micro-hardness, water absorption percentage, and microstructure were conducted. The results showed that tensile strength has been increased by adding Al -powder up to 10wt%v as 33.07MPa. Beyond this 10%wt of Al-powder, tensile strength shows reduction. The density of composite samples filled Al-powder increases as the wt% of Al-powder increase. The microstructure of sample 'C' exhibits better than other samples. The compression strength 59.78MPa is observed in sample 'B' as higher than other samples.& COPY; 2023 Jordan Journal of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering. All rights reserved