Development and Characterization of Epoxy Resin Based Hybrid Composite Reinforced with Sugarcane Bagasse Ash and E-Glass Fiber

Abstract: In this research an attempt has been made to develop hybrid composite material using Sugarcane Bagasse ash and E-glass fiber with epoxy resin as matrix for different fiber orientation such as 0°,30° and 45°. Vacuum bag moulding technique is being used to fabricate the composite material. In this study, characteristics of Sugarcane bagasse ash with varied orientation of E-glass fiber and Epoxy Hybrid polymer matrix have been studied. The mechanical properties such as tensile and flexural strength of the Fiber reinforced polymer composites are evaluated and following observations are made. The composites exhibit tensile strength as follows, the highest 204.67 N/〖mm〗^2 and the lowest 109.278 N/〖mm〗^2 were observed with 0ᵒ and 45ᵒ fiber orientation respectively and the flexural strength of 277.52 N/〖mm〗^2and 211.22 N/〖mm〗^2were recorded for 0ᵒ and 45ᵒ respectively. The results show that, the Tensile and Flexural strength decreases with increasing the degree of orientation of E-glass fiber in the composite. The composite having 5%wt of bagasse ash and 0ᵒ orientation of E-glass reinforced with Epoxy resin exhibits better properties among other variations of E-glass orientation. The tensile and flexural strengths decrease with increase in e-glass orientation because of shear stress induced on the interface of each lamina and in crack propagation is stopped by fibres during the fracture process in 0̊ fibre orientation specimen, and the contribution of fibres during the fracture process decreases as the degree orientation increases.

Keywords: Room temperature vacuum bag molding (RTVBM), tensile and flexural.