Effect of jute fibers on the mechanical properties of epoxy resin

Abstract EN

Epoxy resins are widely used in industry by virtue of combinations of favorable characteristics including good mechanical and physical properties, ease of processing and low cost.

However, these resins suffer from the disadvantage of brittleness, which limits their use in many applications.

In this work, polymeric composites were prepared from epoxy resin reinforced Bi-directionally (0o - 90o) by jute and glass fibers singly and in combination as a hybrid.

A comparison is made between the elastic modulus, material toughness and fracture toughness of the composites with those of un-reinforced epoxy to find out the effect of reinforcement on the composites at varying temperatures (0, 25, 40, and 60 Co).

Volume fraction for each reinforcement fibers (glass or jute) was 30% but for hybrid composite was (15% glass fibers and 15% jute fibers).

The results show that the jute- reinforced laminates have much better properties than the resin alone; but the properties are inferior to those of glass reinforced epoxy.

The most appropriate role for the jute fibers is, to use them as filler fibers in combination with glass fibers to get moderate and acceptable mechanical properties during applications.

The improvements in mechanical properties (elasticity modulus, material toughness, and fracture toughness) are 623%, 565%, and 593% respectively in comparison with un-reinforced epoxy samples.