Abstracto

MECHANICAL CHARACTERISATION OF COIR AND RICE HUSK REINFORCED HYBRID POLYMER COMPOSITE

Vasanta V Cholachagudda , Udayakumar P A , Ramalingaiah

Polymer matrix composites are gaining more importance compare to monolithical materials as being more reliable and cheaply available. Polymer matrix composites finding application from household to engineering approach. With the advancement of PMC�s their properties have been increased by one the addition of one more fiber made as hybrid composite which boost the property of PMC where a single fiber composite lags. In our project we have chosen coir fiber as the major reinforcement and rice husk as an additional fiber to improve the mechanical property of polymer composite with vinyl ester as the base material prepared by hand layup process according to ASTM standards. Test specimens are prepared with different weight fractions of coir fiber at the optimization point of tensile test a small percentage of rice husks are added and tests were conducted and the improvement in mechanical properties (tensile strength and flexural strength) of the hybrid composite material is observed. With the SEM analysis the conclusion of the project is made for compatibility of coir and rice husk with Vinylester and the interfacial bonding between matrix and reinforcement is observed