Physical, mechanical and thermal properties of jute and bamboo fiber reinforced unidirectional epoxy composites

A detailed investigation of physical, mechanical and thermal properties of jute and bamboo fiber reinforced epoxy resin unidirectional void free composites was carried out. The composites were prepared by using vacuum technique. Scanning electron microscopic analysis, tensile and flexural testing and thermogravimetric analysis were performed in order to evaluate surface morphology, mechanical properties and thermal behavior of the unidirectional composites respectively. The relationship between theoretical and experimental values was figured out using rules of mixture. The analytical results showed good agreement with the experimental results. Comparing jute and bamboo fiber reinforced unidirectional composites, it is observed that bamboo fiber reinforced epoxy composites showed good results in terms of tensile strength, while jute fiber reinforced epoxy composites had higher Young's modulus values. Bamboo fiber reinforced epoxy composites showed good flexure strength in the longitudinal distribution. On the other hand, jute fiber reinforced epoxy composited had better flexural strength with transverse fiber distribution in the composites. Fiber distribution was not uniform for both bamboo and jute fiber reinforced unidirectional epoxy composites. Scanning electron microscopic analysis showed that morphological changes took place depending on the fiber orientation in epoxy composites. It is also observed from thermogravimetric analysis that jute fiber reinforced epoxy composites had better thermal behavior compared to bamboo fiber reinforced epoxy composites.