Influence of natural fibers on mechanical, thermal, water absorption and morphological characteristics of Kevlar Hybrid Epoxy composites for shipbuilding application

Abstract

The present work investigated the influence of natural fibers in Kevlar-reinforced epoxy composite. In this research, fourlayers of Kevlar woven fiber are fabricated by hand layup technique. In each sample, three layers of natural filler are filledbetween the Kevlar fabric layer. Three samples are fabricated, and each sample is added either with eggshell powder,Banana Bract, Human hair, which is reinforced with epoxy resin 10:1 ratio. The characterization of mechanical and thermalbehavior evaluated by tensile, flexural, thermal conductivity, heat deflection, and water absorption is analyzed by ASTMstandards. Mechanical fractured surface and interfacial adhesion layer formation are analyzed in Scanning electronmicroscopy. The result shows that eggshell powder-filled Kevlar epoxy composite exhibits higher mechanical propertiesthan the other two epoxy composite filled with either human hair or banana bract. Human hair-filled Kevlar composite hadbetter mechanical properties than banana bract composite. The study of the morphological structure shows that Eggshellsand human hair-filled composite have less water absorption, high heat resistance, low thermal conductivity. This fabricatedcomposite can be utilized for ship fuel tank covers, valve covers, lining materials of marine constructions.