Comparing non-biodegradable plastic with environmentally friendly natural fibre composite on car front bumpers design

Abstract

Abstract Production of plastic is growing, and plastics are used in a variety of products. However, plastics are not biodegradable and do not decompose easily. To overcome the problems in decomposition of plastics, the use of a specific type of natural fibre composite (NFC) material for front-bumper in cars is considered in this investigation. NFCs have the advantages of being environmentally friendly, light weight and high strength. The use of jute fibre is adopted for the design of a car front bumper and compared with the plastic bumper through Finite Element Analysis. The aim is to identify their performances in terms of impact energy, strength and resilience. The results show that when both materials were simulated under the same impact force, jute fibre has a lower equivalent stress with 177.1 MPa compare with 293.18 MPa on plastic material. This finding indicates that jute fibre has greater yield limit and more resilient to fracture. The simulation result also shows that jute fibre has a higher equivalent stress of 65.55 MPa on the front bumper compare with a lower equivalent stress of 39.94 MPa on plastic. This suggests that plastic material will yield soon when an impact force is higher. The total deformation after the same impact force in jute fibre is 2.1 mm, which is significantly less than the deformation in plastic with 11.7 mm. Therefore, this research concludes that jute fibre can potentially replace plastic as a green composite material application to minimise environmental damages. Graphical abstract