Comparative Evaluation of Mechanical Properties of GFRP and Polymer Hybrid Composite

Synthetic fiber polymer laminates are becoming competitive material for engineering and structural applications. In this work, an attempt is made to synthesize a laminate with natural as well as synthetic fibers to get the advantage of cost-effective natural fibers. Coir is a natural fiber available in significant amount in south India. The present work aims at manufacturing a strong, cost effective, light and low impact on environment hybrid material. Both GFRP laminates and hybrid (GFRP + coconut Coir) laminates were fabricated by hand layup method and compression molding. Physical and mechanical properties of this laminates such as tensile strength, impact strength and density were evaluated. Microscopy images of this laminates were arrived at through scanning electron microscope. Even though the performance of hybrid (GFRP + coconut Coir) laminates is relatively lesser than GFRP laminates, these hybrid laminates may be adopted in the industries where cost is an important design factor.