EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION ON MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF UNTREATED AND CRYO-TREATED HEMP FIBER REINFORCED POLYMER COMPOSITES

Abstract

Emerging research is primarily concerned with environmental and economic challenges associated with the development of new materials for future industries. Various industry sectors have been attempting to replace synthetic fibers used as reinforcement in polymer composites with natural fibers over the past few decades. Because of their favourable and remarkable properties, composite materials have long provided a significant quantity of research and industrial effort. Composite materials are made up of two materials that have diverse physical and chemical characteristics. When they are joined, they generate a substance that is specialized to fulfil a certain purpose. It consists of reinforcement phase and matrix phase. Fiber reinforced polymers employ fiber as a reinforcement phase to offer strength to the composite. Natural fibers are more environmentally friendly, renewable, inexpensive, non-hazardous, nonabrasive, and widely available than synthetic fibers. In this project, Hemp fiber is employed as the reinforcing phase while DGEBA epoxy is used as the matrix phase. The Hemp Fiber Reinforced Polymer (HFRP) composites were fabricated using Vacuum Assisted Resin Transfer Moulding (VARTM) method. The mechanical properties of HFRP composites were tested by selecting two samples untreated HFRP and Cryo-treated HFRP. Tensile test, Flexural test, Hardness test, water absorption study along with analysis study also done. Ansys ACP prepost software used for the validation. The study shows that the cryo-treated samples shows a better flexural strength, hardness and less water absorption rate compared to untreated sample. But it shows less tensile strength compared to untreated sample.