COMPARATIVE STUDY ON MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF PINEAPPLE FIBRE/EPOXY COMPOSITE HYBRIDIZED WITH AL2O3 AND EGGSHELL FILLERS

The development of hybridized composites has become an important area of research interest in Materials Science. The present study was aimed at evaluating the mechanical properties of pineapple fibre/epoxy composite reinforced with Al2O3 and eggshell fillers.The epoxy composite were produced by keeping the percentage of pineapple fibre constant while varying the percentage weight of the Al2O3 and eggshell fillers. All the composite samples were prepared and their mechanical properties tested according to ASTM International standard. Results obtained from the laboratory tests revealed that the Al2O3 and eggshell fillershad significant effect of all the mechanical parameters of the composite samples investigated in this study. From the laboratory results, the tensile strength of the pineapple fibre/epoxy composite hybridized with Al2O3 decreased non-linearly, as the filler volume increased from 5% to 15%. While the tensile strength of the pineapple fibre/epoxy composite hybridized with eggshell filler increased from 98MPa to 127MPa as the eggshell volume increased from 5% to 10%, and then declined to 109 MPa when the eggshell volume was increased to 15%. It was observed that the hybridized composite filled with Al2O3 at the volume of 5% Vol. exhibited maximum tensile strength (210 MPa) when compared to the other hybridized compositessamples. In terms of the flexural properties of the composite samples, the study results showed that the flexural strength of the hybridized composite samples inclined non-linearly, as the filler volume increased from 5% to 15%.Findings obtained from the study revealed that, the flexural strength of the eggshell filler hybridized pineapple fibre/epoxy composite was lower than the Al2O3 hybridized pineapple fibre/epoxy composite samples. Data obtained from this study had proved that agricultural waste can be turned into industrial wealth by the production of light weight composites with higher strength.