Title: Combined effect of nano clay and fibre surface treatment on mechanical behaviours of Palmyra fruit fibre/MMT clay reinforced polyester hybrid composite

Authors: Sankar Irullappasamy; D. Ravindran

Addresses: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Composite Research Group, National Engineering College, Kovilpatti, Tamil Nadu 628503, India ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Engineering College, KR Nagar, Kovilpatti, Tamil Nadu 628503, India

Abstract: This study concentrated on evaluating the mechanical characteristics of Palmyra fruit fibre/MMT clay reinforced polyester hybrid composites. The effects of nano clay loading and surface treatment on the fibre surface are simultaneously observed by conducting various tests. Compression moulding technique is followed to fabricate the composite samples. Composites are prepared with and without surface modified fibre and in the both cases, nano clay is added hence the changes due to the various weight percentages of nano clay are also recorded. Surface modification of the fibre was done with1 N alkali solution. The mechanical properties like tensile, flexural and impact strengths are evaluated as per ASTM and reported.

Keywords: Palmyra fruit fibre; MMT nano clay; unsaturated polyester matrix; effect of surface modification; mechanical behaviours.

DOI: 10.1504/IJCAET.2018.088825

International Journal of Computer Aided Engineering and Technology, 2018 Vol.10 No.1/2, pp.26 - 34

Received: 20 Jul 2015
Accepted: 18 Nov 2015

Published online: 20 Dec 2017 *

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