Study of Mechanical, Barrier and Tribological Behaviour of Jute & Glass Fiber Epoxy Hybrid Polymer

<div class="section abstract"><div class="htmlview paragraph">The incorporation of natural available material into synthetic materials to form a fiber within a single polymer matrix has been ignited since environment concerns become crucial nowadays. Composite materials embedded with two or more types of fibers makes a composite as hybrid. The study of hybridization of natural and synthetic fibers brings out superior mechanical and tribological properties. In our present studies, fabrication of jute & glass fiber reinforced epoxy-based polymer hybrid composites were carried out using resin infusion technique. For comparing the various properties, the composite made of pure jute fiber i.e 100% jute, pure glass fiber i.e 100% glass, the hybrid composite containing 75% jute and 25% glass fiber, 50% jute and 50% glass fiber, and 25% jute and 75% glass fiber were made and its functional behaviors were studied. The results revealed the hybrid composite containing 25% jute and 75% glass fiber possessed maximum tensile strength of 292±5.8 MPa, flexural strength of 188.3±3.7 MPa, impact strength of 130±2.6 kJ/m<sup>2</sup>, storage modulus of 17050MPa, loss modulus of 2883MPa, and minimum moisture absorption and wear loss. As compared with the obtained values of composite containing pure jute fiber, tensile strength was increased by 346%, flexural strength increased by 278%, impact strength increased by 227%, hardness increased by 184%, storage modulus increased by 431%, loss modulus increased by 454%, moisture absorption decreased by 88% and wear loss decreased by 100% . Thus prepared hybrid composites, could be employed in different automobile components such as panels, fenders, engine components, brake pad materials, bonnets and heat shields.</div></div>