Jute-Glass Sandwich Composites

Abstract

The effect of surface layer reinforcement with glass fibres of unidirectional jute-rein forced epoxy composite on the flexural properties has been investigated. Substantial increase in flexural modulus and strength with small amounts of reinforcement (for reinforcement ratio (t/d) < 0.3, where "t" and "d" are the respective thicknesses of glass reinforced plastic (GRP) shell and JRP core) were achieved. In addition, studies on the effect of moisture absorption of flexural properties revealed a significant im provement in moisture resistance of jute reinforced epoxy with hybridization. Though density analyses of these hybrids indicate an increase in density with hybridization, the considerable improvement of the normalized properties of jute-glass hybrids make them candidate materials for cost-effective applications. The work has also shown that the reinforcement (t/d) is more useful a parameter in the case of sandwich-type hybrid fibre composites. Analysis of failure modes of these composites loaded in flexure is also presented.