Mechanical Properties of Banana Fibers Reinforced Polyester Composite

Abstract

Natural fibers has been used extensively in various engineering fields, the mechanical properties of banana fibers play a broad role in determining their applicability in various industrial and engineering fields such as household, furniture, paper and automotive. This study presents use of Banana fibers to reinforcing Polyester composite using hand layup technique. Unidirectional and quasi isotropic [00,900,450] samples were fabricated, Tensile strength, flexural and compression tests are performed to determine the load-displacement. The result showed that the unidirectional [0o] sample has high tensile and flexural strength comparison with unidirectional [90o] and quasi isotropic [00,900,450] samples. But for Compression and water absorption test the quasi isotropic [00,900,450] sample was outperformed from the unidirectional [0o] sample. From the previous findings it was estimated that the Banana fibers reinforced polyester composite has high mechanical properties, low cost and easy in fabrication. Because of that the use of Banana fibers in polymer matrix composites is recommended