Flexural properties of areca nut, sunn hemp and e-glass fibers reinforced with epoxy composites

In this paper, areca nut composites and sunn hemp composites were prepared and subjected to flexural testing. The fibers in the composites were arranged in uniaxial, biaxial and criss-cross orientations. Further, these composites were incorporated with glass fibers. Comparisons were made based on fiber-orientation and glass fiber incorporation. The fibers were treated with alkali, i.e., sodium hydroxide (NaOH) to get better surface bonding between the fibers and the matrix. The composite specimens were prepared by the traditional hand lay-up technique followed by a soft compression molding technique with the help of epoxy and hardener. The results showed that the flexural strength was the most for uniaxial arrangement and the least for biaxial arrangement in case of both the types of fiber composites. On the other hand, glass fiber incorporation increased the flexural strength of the areca nut fiber composites while it reduced the strength of the Sunn hemp fiber composites.