Tensile and Compressive Properties of Woven Kenaf/Glass Sandwich Hybrid Composites

TLDR

The study experimentally examined the monotonic tensile and compressive behavior of woven kenaf/glass reinforced unsaturated polyester sandwich hybrid composites. Five laminate types were fabricated by hand lay‑up and cold press, post‑cured at 80 °C for 2 h and aged 48 h at room temperature; the hybrids had a fixed six‑layer glass shell with varying numbers of core kenaf layers (S1–S3), and pure glass and kenaf specimens were also produced for comparison. Replacing one kenaf layer for 20 % of the fiber weight lowered the composite density by 13 % while causing less than 1 % loss in compression strength and a 40 % drop in tensile strength compared to pure glass, with the S1 configuration delivering the best overall mechanical balance.

Abstract

Monotonic (tensile and compression) properties of woven kenaf/glass reinforced unsaturated polyester sandwich hybrid composites have been experimentally investigated. Five types of composites laminates were fabricated using a combination of hand lay-up and cold press techniques, postcured for two hours at 80°C and left for 48 hours at room temperature. The hybrid composites contained fixed six layers of glass as a shell, three on each side, whereas the number of core kenaf layers was changed in three stages to get S1, S2, and S3 hybrid composites. Composites specimens with pure glass and kenaf were also fabricated for comparison. It was found that one kenaf layer replaced about 20% of total fiber weight fraction of the composite; this leads to reducing the density of final hybrid composite by 13%. Besides, in mechanical properties perspective, there are less than 1% reduction in compression strength and 40% in tensile strength when compared to pure glass composite. Generally, the results revealed that the best performance was observed in S1, which showed a good balance of all mechanical properties determined in this work.