Experimental and Microstructural Evaluation on Mechanical Properties of Abaca/E-Glass Hybrid Composites 2022-28-0583

Composites having synthetic and/or natural fiber reinforcement remain an active area of research for potential structural applications in automotive dashboards, underfloor members, etc. The hybridization of natural and synthetic fibers reinforced composites was shown to produce desirable mechanical properties close to existing materials. This study explores the Abaca/E-glass-reinforced epoxy composite, fabricated using the hand lay-up method, a four-layer composite with [0°/90°/90°/0°] fiber orientation was fabricated. E-glass was used to enhance the mechanical properties of Abaca/epoxy composites. Mechanical tests, namely tensile, compressive, flexural, impact, and hardness tests, and microstructural evaluation were performed on the hybrid composite using standard experimental techniques. Results showed an enhancement in mechanical properties, mainly, the flexural strength was found to be 296 MPa, an increase of 780% from Abaca fiber-reinforced composite due to the addition of E-glass fibers. Further, the results were compared with Abaca fiber-reinforced composite and other widely researched composites. Furthermore, the samples after mechanical testing were sent for Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) analysis to evaluate the break regions, it was found that fiber-matrix debonding and delamination were the predominant failure modes.