Mechanical properties of banana empty fruit bunch fibre reinforced polyester composites

Abstract

A light weight composite material has been prepared using banana empty fruit bunch fibre (banana-EFB) as reinforcement in polyester resin matrix, and its mechanical properties studied. The composites are formulated up to a maximum fibre volume fraction of about 0.37, resulting in a mean tensile strength of 43 MPa and tensile modulus of 1.06 GPa which are 36% and 68% higher than those of the plain polyester respectively. The flexural strength of banana-EFB composites is decreased, whereas flexural modulus has shown a mixed trend compared to that of plain polyester. The specific flexural modulus of the composite is 1.42 times to that of polyester resin and the work of fracture in impact is found to be 141.7 J/m.