Effect of Fiber Length on Mechanical Behavior of Coir Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Composites

Fiber reinforced polymer composites have played a dominant role for a long time in a variety of applications for their high specific strength and modulus. The fiber which serves as a reinforcement in reinforced plastics may be synthetic or natural. To this end, an investigation has been carried out to make use of coir, a natural fiber abundantly available in India. Natural fibers are not only strong and lightweight but also relatively very cheap. The present work describes the development and characterization of a new set of natural fiber based polymer composites consisting of coconut coir as reinforcement and epoxy resin as matrix material. The developed composites are characterized with respect to their mechanical characteristics. Experiments are carried out to study the effect of fiber length on mechanical behavior of these epoxy based polymer composites. Finally, the scanning electron microscope (SEM) of fractured surfaces has been done to study their surface morphology.