Statistical analysis of mechanical properties of wood dust filled Jute fiber based hybrid composites under cryogenic atmosphere using Grey-Taguchi method

Abstract

Abstract At present, composites are being utilized on account of simplicity in manufacturing and their characteristics are low weight, non-abrasive, non-flammable and non-harmful. This article attempts to achieve good mechanical properties of the wood and woven jute based natural fiber-reinforced plastics. The required composite materials were fabricated by using a hand layup method. The fabricated laminates were immersed in liquid nitrogen at 77 K for cryogenic treatments. The following parameters are (i) wood density, (ii) wood weight ratio, (iii) woven jute type, (iv) number of jute layers, (v) cryogenic treatment durations and (vi) alkaline treatment durations, each at three different levels were picked for composite development by utilizing the Gray-Taguchi method. Mechanical testing of fabricated laminates was done as per ASTM standards to estimate compressive, double shear and hardness properties. Based on the L27 (36) orthogonal array of the Grey Taguchi technique, 27 investigational trials were conducted. According to the Gray relation analysis, 300 kg m−3 of wood density with a weight ratio of 12%, three layers of 350 gsm woven jute, 60 min of cryogenic treatment and 4 h of alkaline treatments resulted in good mechanical strength of the composites. Based on the Analysis of Variance, wood density was identified as the most influencing parameter that contribute up to 35.65% to the improvement of the mechanical strength of hybrid composites. The morphological expositions of NaOH treated hybrid composites and degree of fibers’ dispersion into the matrix were discussed based on Optical and SEM images.