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INVESTIGATION ON MECHANICAL
PROPERTIES OF HEMP-E GLASS FIBER
REINFORCED POLYMER COMPOSITES
Somashekar S M, Manjunath V, Gowtham M J, Balasubramaniam N S
Assistant Professor, Department of Mechanical Engineering,
C. Byregowda Institute of Technology, Thoradevandanahalli,
Karnataka563126
ABSTRACT
Natural fiber composite is currently a leading module in the world of
composites. It is due to many of its features such as freely available, easy
processing, low cost, ability to replace usage of Glass fiber (Synthetic fiber),
better strength properties and ecofriendly. They find useful applications in
various fields from domestic to automotive sector as of now. Natural fibers
with good content of lignocellulose, low density, and better elongation
percentage are chosen for manufacturing of composites of above mentioned
applications. Unidirectional & Continuous natural fiber composites are said
to be anisotropic and having predominant mechanical properties. While
designing these composites out of many factors, amount or volume fraction of
fibers also considered carefully. In this study untreated continuous Hemp
fiber-Bi directional woven E Glass fiber reinforced hybrid polymer matrix
composite laminates are developed and tested for its mechanical properties
such as tensile, compression and flexural as per ASTM standards by varying
fibers proportions. The obtained results yields that natural fiber composites
performed equally or more than synthetic fibers such as Glass fibers.
Key words: Untreated Continuous Hemp Fiber, Fiber Proportions, Polymer
Matrix
Cite this Article: Somashekar S M, Manjunath V, Gowtham M J,
Balasubramaniam N S, Investigation on Mechanical Properties of HempE
Glass Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composites. International Journal of
Mechanical Engineering and Technology, 7(3), 2016, pp. 182192.
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1. INTRODUCTION
Among day by day advancement in the materials technology, composite materials are
emerged as new generation structural materials quenching the needs and demands of
rapid growing industrial, automotive and aerospace sectors. Composites are created
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2. MATERIALS USED
Hemp fiber: Hemp fibers are finding increasing use as reinforcements in composite
materials, often replacing glass fibers. Found in the bast of hemp plant, these fibers
have specific strength and stiffness that are comparable to those of glass fibers, cost
effective and easy to process and recycle. Hemp fibers find applications in,
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Hardener
Araldite HY951 hardener was used as a binder during the fabrication. It has low
viscosity, cure at room temperature, good mechanical strength, Good resistance to
atmospheric and chemical degradation.
3. EXPERIMENTAL METHODOLOGY
Procedure for preparation of Laminates
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Using rule of mixtures the various Fiber weight proportions are calculated to achieve
laminates with 20:80, 30:70 and 40:60 ratios with former being the ratio of Fiber by
weight and the latter being that of the Natural fiber/s and E Glass fibers.
Epoxy resin 556 and the hardener HY-951 are mixed with a ratio of 10:1 before
impregnating the first layered natural fibers
Apply a mixture of resin and hardener over first layered fibers.
Woven E glass of 300gsm has cut into required mold size and placed over
impregnated fibers.
Again suitable amount of resin and hardener mixture is applied over previously
placed E glass fiber
Rest of the half amount of natural fibers is placed over impregnated E glass fiber as a
second layer and again mixture of resin and hardener is applied.
The resin mixture is spread up around the corners uniformly by Manual layup.
A dead weight is placed over the open mold and left for settlement.
After sometime the laminate is extracted from the open mold and kept in suitable
temperature oven for curing.
Likewise all cured laminates are collected and arranged in the form of stalk and
bagging is covered over the stalk.
The bagging enclosed of stalk is connected to vacuum through hose, in order to avoid
formation of voids over laminate surface.
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1.249g/ccm
1.11g/ccm
2.58g/ccm
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Laminates
HE 20%
H+EG+M
11:9:80
HE 30%
H+EG+M
19:11:70
HE 40%
H+EG+M
28:12:70
Wt. of
Hemp
(grams)
Wt. of
Kenaf
(grams)
Wt. of E
Glass
(grams)
Wt. of
Hardener
(grams)
Wt of
Epoxy
(gms)
Wt. of
laminate
(gms)
Thickness
of the
laminate
(mm)
40
36
30.4
273.36
380
4.5
60
36
22.4
203.63
322
4.5
80
36
17.4
158.18
292
4.5
: (common to all)
: L=250 mm
: l=50 mm
Specimen
1
2
1
2
1
2
HE 20%
HE 30%
HE 40%
Thickness, d (mm)
4.970
5.080
5.220
5.020
4.910
4.830
Width, w (mm)
20.2080
20.630
19.830
20.790
20.470
25.740
Area, A (mm2)
100.790
104.800
103.510
104.360
100.500
124.320
Specimen
HE 20%
1
2
1
2
1
2
HE 30%
HE 40%
Tensile
strength
(MPa)
22.444
25.283
21.262
22.314
23.216
23.034
Avg. Tensile
Strength (MPa)
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23.863
21.788
23.125
186
Youngs Modulus
(MPa)
238.87
204.85
200.00
219.60
174.39
110.84
Avg. Youngs
Modulus (MPa)
221.863
209.801
142.618
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Specimen
1
2
1
2
1
2
HE 30%
HE 40%
Thickness, d (mm)
5.45
5.45
5.3
5.49
5.02
4.87
Width, w (mm)
51.54
51.25
51.58
51.73
51.95
50.45
Specimen
HE 20%
1
2
1
2
1
2
HE 30%
HE 40%
Peak
Load
(N)
18420
14940
7560
16500
11400
15300
Avg Peak
Load (N)
Compression
strength (MPa)
Avg Compression
strength (MPa)
16680
65.58
53.49
27.65
58.1
43.71
62.27
59.54
12030
13350
42.88
52.99
Composition
Specimen
HE 20%
1
2
1
2
1
2
HE 30%
HE 40%
Thickness,
d (mm)
4.970
5.080
5.220
5.202
4.910
4.980
Width, w
(mm)
20.280
20.630
19.830
20.790
20.470
20.820
Support Span , l
(mm)
100
100
100
100
100
100
Composition
HE 20%
HE 30%
HE 40%
274.60
98.07
127.49
225.56
254.98
156.91
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Avg Load,
(N)
186.333
176.5255
205.946
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Deflection,
(mm)
6.483
1.434
5.092
3.097
5.881
4.998
Avg Deflection,
(mm)
5.025
5.211
4.945
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Composition
Specimen
Bending
Strength
(MPa)
HE 20%
1
2
1
2
1
2
82.23
27.63
35.39
60.14
77.50
45.58
HE 30%
HE 40%
Avg Bending
Strength (MPa)
Bending
Modulus
54.92821
100.42
92.44
88.64
85.42
103.18
97.22
47.76572
61.54309
Avg Bending
Modulus,
(MPa)
96.43
87.03
100.20
Composition
HE 20%
HE 30%
HE 40%
Avg
Tensile
Strength
(MPa)
23.863
21.788
23.125
Avg Youngs
Modulus
(MPa)
221.86
209.80
142.62
Avg
Compression
strength
(MPa)
59.54
42.88
52.99
Avg Bending
Strength
(MPa)
Avg Bending
Modulus,
(MPa)
54.93
47.77
61.54
96.43
87.03
100.20
Graph 4.1 Average Tensile strength versus Percentage of Hemp+E glass+Epoxy (HE)
Composites
Reason: It is observed that 20% fiber proportion got maximum Tensile strength
out of three proportions which have been tested. Here Tensile strength drops down to
as low as 21.79 MPa for HE-30%. This can be attributed that the incompatibility of
Epoxy and Hemp, Hydrophilic nature of Hemp and contrasting Hydrophobic
characteristics of Epoxy. This results in the creation of voids, reducing the tensile
strength. As the amount of Hemp increases, this results in moderate and gradual
increase in Tensile strength.
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Graph 4.2 Average Youngs Modulus versus Percentage of Hemp+E glass+Epoxy (HE)
Composites.
Reason: It is observed that 20% fiber proportion got maximum Youngs Modulus
out of three proportions which have been tested. The Youngs Modulus of the sample
keeps decreasing upon increasing of fiber proportion due to reduction in resin amount
which holds fibers together.
Graph 4.3 Average Compression Strength versus Percentage of Hemp+E glass+Epoxy (HE)
Composites.
Graph 4.4 Average Bending Strength versus Percentage of Hemp+E glass+ Epoxy (HE)
Composites
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Reason: It is observed that 40% fiber proportion got maximum Bending Strength
out of three proportions which have been tested. Here bending strength drops at 30%
fiber proportion due to incompatibility of Epoxy and Hemp, Hydrophilic nature of
Hemp and contrasting hydrophobic characteristics of Epoxy which results in creation
of voids. Any further addition of fiber reduces voids.
Graph 4.5 Average Bending Modulus versus Percentage of Hemp+E glass+Epoxy (HE)
Composites
Reason: It is observed that 40% fiber proportion got maximum Bending Modulus
out of three proportions which have been tested. Here bending Modulus drops at 30%
fiber proportion due to incompatibility of Epoxy and Hemp, Hydrophilic nature of
Hemp and contrasting hydrophobic characteristics of Epoxy which results in creation
of voids. Any further addition of fiber reduces voids.
5. CONCLUSIONS
The following conclusions are drawn from the present investigation:
The composites with 20% Hemp and E glass fibers (HE-20%) were found to have
best tensile strength. i.e., 23.86 MPa, Youngs Modulus i.e., 222 MPa,
Compression Strength i.e., 60 MPa among all fiber proportions composites tested
here.
The composites with 40% Hemp and E glass fibers (HE-40%) were found to have
best Bending Strength i.e., 62 MPa and Bending Modulus i.e., 100 MPa among all
fiber proportions composites tested here.
GRAPHS
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REFERENCE
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[2]
[3]
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[5]
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