Influence of cellulosic particle fillers on mechanical properties of hemp fibre-reinforced composites

ABSTRACT

Plant-based hemp natural fibre-reinforced composites are sustainable in the view of the environment. However, these composites have not attracted many applications due to their less mechanical properties compared to the synthetic fibre-reinforced composites. The present work reports the hemp fibre-reinforced composite loaded with cellulose-based filler to improve their mechanical properties. At equal proportions of cellulose filler such as pistachio shell powder, teak wood powder, groundnut shell powder reinforced with the hemp fibre-reinforced epoxy composite, the improvement in the tensile strength, flexural strength, % of elongation and % of deformation is reported. The hemp fibre/epoxy composite loaded with 5 wt% of pistachio shell powder shows a 9.28% increment in tensile strength, 50.96 % increment in flexural strength compared to hemp fibre/epoxy composite. The hemp/epoxy composite loaded with 5 wt% teak wood powder particles shows enhancement in tensile, flexural by 31.56 %, 35.97%, respectively. The hemp/epoxy composite loaded with 5 wt% groundnut shell powder particles shows enhancement in tensile, flexural by 42.99 %, 83.99%, respectively.

KEYWORDS:

• Hemp fibre
• teak wood powder
• groundnut shell powder
• pistachio shell powder
• tensile and flexural strength

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), India, for giving the financial grant to the first authors of this paper to procure the digital universal tensile testing machine. Sanctioned Letter number: File No. 8-42/FDC/RPS (POLICY-l)/2019-20.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the All India Council for Technical Education [8-42/FDC/RPs (POLICY-l) /2019-20]