Tensile and flexural properties of snake grass natural fiber reinforced isophthallic polyester composites

Natural fiber composite materials are one such capable material which replaces the conventional and synthetic materials for the practical applications where we require less weight and energy conservation. The present paper, which emphasis the importance of the newly identified snake grass fibers which are extracted from snake grass plants by manual process. In this paper, the tensile properties of the snake grass fiber are studied and compared with the traditionally available other natural fibers. The mixed chopped snake grass fiber reinforced composite is prepared by using the isophthallic polyester resin and the detailed preparation methodology is presented. Fiber pull-outs on the fractured specimen during the physical testing of the composites are also investigated. The experimental evidence also shows that the volume fraction increases the tensile, flexural strength and modulus of the snake grass fiber reinforce composite. (C) 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.