Mechanical Properties of Coir Rope-Glass Fibers Reinforced Polymer Hybrid Composites

Natural fiber composites have been developed and taken more attention in the last decades. Coir fiber is the natural fiber which has been used as reinforcement of composites. This fiber is hybridized with glass fiber for reinforcement composite. In this paper, coir rope and glass fibers were combined as reinforcement into hybrid composites with unsaturated polyester resin as matrix. The composition of fibers and matrix into hybrid composites are used 30:70 (volume fraction) with unsaturated polyester. Volume fractions of coir rope mat and glass fiber mat in hybrid composites are 10:20, 15:15 and 20:10 respectively. The mechanical properties of the coir rope-glass fiber composite hybrid were described in this paper. Their properties include tensile strength, tensile modulus, flexural strength, flexural modulus, impact energy and impact strength. Fractography of tensile composite hybrid is also analyzed using Scanning Electron Microscope