The influence of human hair on kenaf and Grewia fiber-based hybrid natural composite material: an experimental study

Abstract

Abstract The demand for natural composite products to make various industrial and commercial products and protect the environment is continuously increasing. In this paper, a hybrid plant fiber composite (HPFC) is produced by a hand lay-up molding method using 64 wt% resin matrix and 36 wt% natural fibers (kenaf, Grewia and human hair). The influences of the weight of the natural fibers on tensile, flexural and impact strengths were investigated by the simplex lattice method. It was revealed that the percentage contribution of kenaf and human hair fibers to tensile strength, flexural and impact strengths is higher than that of Grewia fiber. The optimum weight percentage of fibers is 13.5 wt% kenaf, 15.3 wt% human hair and 7.2 wt% Grewia to produce a HPFC with desirable mechanical properties. The mechanical properties of the HPFC were compared with those of HPFC without human hair. The tensile, flexural, and impact strengths of the HPFC were 17.95%, 11.1% and 19.79% higher than the HPFC without human hair. The predicted optimum HPFC for making commercial products to fulfill consumer demand is recommended.