Development and Investigation of Jute/Linen Fibre Reinforced Polymer Composite

In recent automotive era, natural fibre reinforced with thermoset polymer composites have been incorporated by automotive industries especially for interiors, car body panels, dashboards, headliners etc. Natural fibres offer many affirmative qualities such as less weight and cost, especially in reduction of carbon di-oxide which is a major threat to the planet from the automotive sectors. The current work deals with the study of the potential usage of mineral powder (industrial by-product) in polymer. In this paper, hybrid composites with natural fabrics reinforcements and mineral powder as filler to matrix material are developed. The mineral powder used as filler is silica fumes which is a by-product of industries. The hand lay-up methodology is employed to fabricate the composite. The composites with and without mineral filler material are developed. The mechanical properties of the composites are assessed. The mechanical properties of composites with and without mineral filler are compared and their result shows that with addition of filler material, the mechanical properties of the composites are affected. Results disclose that loading of silica fumes increases the mechanical properties of the composite comparatively since it enhances the fibre matrix adhesion. Optical microscope & SEM are utilized to observe the composite’s morphology.