Evaluation of Mechanical and Morphological Properties of Hybrid Reinforced Polymer Composites

This paper deals with development and study of a composite made of natural fibers, namely banana and flax fibers. A polymer matrix composite (polyester resin) using banana and flax fiber as reinforcement was developed. The composites were prepared with different volume ratio of banana and flax fibers. The fabrication process composite is done using a compression molding machine. The composite thus developed is subjected to tensile, impact, flexural loads testing using universal testing machine (UTM) to determine the mechanical properties of this hybrid composite. The composite is observed scanning electron microscope (SEM) to deduce its morphology. Finally, the finite element analysis is done using ANSYS software. The present study indicates that the hybrid composite is found to be stronger when compared to single fiber composites.