Investigations on Alkali Treated Natural Fiber Reinforced Polymer Composite by Finite Element Analysis

Abstract

This work describes the development and characterization of a new set of polymer composites consisting of Palm leaf stalk fiber reinforcement, in polyester resin matrix. The composite slabs are made by normal hand layup process. Composites are made on pure resin using Palm leaf stalk fiber with and without alkali treatment. The newly developed composites are characterized with respect to their physical and mechanical properties. The mechanical properties like Impact strength, hardness value of the specimens were calculated by using Charpy Impact testing machine and standard hardness tester. The Palm leaf stalk fiber composites prepared without alkali treatment of the fiber showed better results. And also the finite element analysis of these Palm leaf stalk fiber composites was done using ANSYS. The analysis compares the impact strength with actual values.