Experimental investigation on the mechanical properties of aluminium sandwiched sisal/kenaf/aloevera/jute/flax natural fibre-reinforced epoxy LY556/GY250 composites

In engineering, composites have indicated a more profound influence in the recent development of materials with high strength to weight ratio. The purpose of this work is to identify the different and specific properties which a composite possesses when various reinforcement fibres are used in different epoxy matrix material. Composite materials have a major role to play with meeting that requirement. Many natural fibre composite materials possess good mechanical properties but still lack in satisfying applications requirements and alternate for which is seen as sandwich natural fibre composites. In this investigation, an effort has been made to study the mechanical properties exhibited by sandwich epoxy composite reinforced with various commonly used natural fibres, namely Aloevera, Kenaf, Sisal, Jute and Flax. The polymer resin used as matrix is also varied using Epoxy LY556 and Epoxy GY250. The originality of this work is in the use of Epoxy GY250 to fabricate sandwich composites with five commonly available natural fibres and compare its performance to the more widely used Epoxy LY556. It has been determined through various mechanical tests, which particular epoxy resin bonds better with the natural fibres namely, jute, sisal, aloe vera, kenaf and flax thereby providing better tensile, impact and flexural properties. The investigation is hoped to provide an insight into how the environmentally friendly natural fibres interact with the varying matrix resins and how this interaction affects the mechanical properties of said composites.