Abstract
The usage of natural fibre as reinforcement in polymer composites has increased in the recent years with rising concerns of environmental pollution and the heavy dependence on synthetic fibres from petroleum products of the middle east and the amount of material available in the tropical countries for such low prices. These materials can decrease our dependency on conventional materials like plastics, thereby decreasing the amount of pollution we cause on disposal and manufacturing of those. In general, the impact strength of the natural fibre composites is considered to be low and this experiment quantifies these results. This research describes the fabrication of a polymer composite, using banana fibre as the reinforcement and epoxy as the polymer matrix. A sequence of samples was prepared by varying various parameters like length, volume fraction and treatment of the fibre. The parameters were optimized using Taguchi's DOE and the combination of parameters which yields us the best result and the contribution of each parameter. The impact strength has been studied using IZOD impact tester. The work has quantified that the impact strength of the composite depends mostly on the volume fraction and also only up to a certain range and then decreases as we increase the quantity of fibre. The same goes with both alkali treatment and length of the fibre which also contribute respectively. The optimum length, volume fraction and chemical are 1mm, 25 wt% and 2% NaOH treatment shows better result.
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