Mode I fracture toughness of bio-fiber and bio-shell particle reinforced epoxy bio-composites

Abstract

The effect of bio-fibres and bio-particles on the fracture toughness has been investigated. Epoxy resin is used as matrix material and different bio-fibers such as banana fiber, bagasse fiber, coconut fiber and particles such as silica and walnut shell particle with different wt% are added as reinforcing material. The mode I fracture toughness tests are conducted in a servo hydraulic universal testing machine. The results show that the fracture toughness of bio-composites reinforced with 20 wt% bagasse or 10 wt% coconut fiber are 1.108 MPa √ m and 1.094 MPa √ m, respectively which are about 8% and 7% higher than neat epoxy. Addition of 2 wt% of silica with 20 wt% of bagasse shows 60% increment of fracture toughness with respect to bagasse and 72% increment with respect to neat epoxy. Hybridisation of bagasse with banana fibers shows 54% decrease in fracture toughness as compared to bagasse and 13% increase as compared to banana. The overall fracture toughness of hybrid bio-composite of 10 wt% coconut fiber and 20 wt% of walnut shell particle is 1.367 MPa √ m which is about 25% higher than coconut fiber reinforced bio-composite.