Effect of cenosphere on moisture absorption performance of woven hybrid bamboo-glass fiber reinforced epoxy composites

Abstract

This paper presents the moisture absorption behaviour and its influence on mechanical properties of cenosphere filled hybrid bamboo-glass fiber reinforced epoxy composites (BGFRECs). The hand lay-up technique has been adopted with various weight percentages (0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0) of cenosphere as a filler content. The moisture absorption tests conducted in distilled-water, and saline-water for 10 days at room temperature. With the help of ASTM standards, the moisture absorption and mechanical properties of these composites have been estimated. The tensile and flexural strengths found to increase when filler percentage increases in different environmental treatments. The obtained results revealed that the cenosphere filler loading has a great impact on the moisture absorption and mechanical properties of the hybrid BGFRECs. However, the influence of moisture absorption presented a substantial drop in the mechanical properties of all the hybrid composites.