Integration and mechanical characterization of PALF and jute fibre in epoxy polymer to fabricate structural hybrid biocomposites

Abstract

The field of materials science has made significant advancements in green technology through the development of biocomposites, driven by environmental and sustainability concerns. The purpose of this study is to fabricate hybrid biocomposite of thermoset polymer epoxy, reinforcing it with PALF and jute fabric that are used in the textile industry to analyse their mechanical properties as well as water absorption characteristics to compare the results with pure pineapple leaf reinforced polymer and pure jute reinforced polymer composites. Hybrid composites with 4 different stacking sequences and two pure composites were fabricated by wet lay-up technique followed by vacuum bagging technique following the latest ASTM standards. The findings reveal that combining jute with PALF improves tensile and flexural characteristics, outperforming pure PALF composites and slightly less than pure jute composite. The highest tensile strength was observed in JFRP (35.16 MPa), and the highest tensile strength for the hybrid composite was observed to be 32.16 MPa. The highest tensile modulus in hybrid composite 4P5J – 2 (1.315 GPa). Hybrid composite 4P5J – 4 exhibited the highest elongation (15.94%). Among the hybrids, 4P5J – 1 demonstrated the best flexural strength (44.36 MPa), equivalent to pure jute composites with a 78.57% increase in flexural modulus. In terms of impact strength, PFRP performed best, but the hybrids still outperformed JFRP. The choice of stacking sequence significantly impacts composite fabrication outcomes. These results suggest a greener future for the development of hybrid composites reinforced with natural fibres from textile industries for uses in the automobile sector, specifically in making levers such as brake and accelerator pedals. It also shows a way of using waste materials of the textile industries as natural reinforcements for fabricating biocomposites