Experimental Evaluation and Comparision of Mechanical Properties of Bio-Based Polymer Composites Reinforced with Calotropis Gigantea and Sisal Fiber

Natural fibers are derivative of plants, animals and even minerals which offer a justifiable substitute to synthetic materials. Contrasting their artificial counterparts, fibers such as flax, sisal and hemp are renewable and biodegradable, making them perfect for textiles and various other applications. While exploring Calotropis gigantea Bio-Composites our work focused on experimentally evaluate the mechanical properties of Calotropis gigantea stem fibers and compare the characteristics with those of sisal fiber. The bio-fibers composite uses corn flour as the matrix material. The Calotropis gigantea stem fibers were extracted through a retting process and then combined with corn flour at different weight ratios. Stability of the composite laminates is found by varying fiber-to-resin ratios, three samples were made in this context and our findings indicated that a 20% v/v fiber content provided optimal stability for mechanical testing. Then fabrication of five additional composite laminates, each with 20% v/v fiber content took place after which the Tensile, Flexural and Impact tests are conducted. The mechanical tests are repeated to ensure reliability. During Mechanical Property Analysis no significant improvement in tensile or flexural strength with gradually increasing fiber content is observed whereas there was a considerable increase in impact energy. The mean values from our tests done on CG Fiber revealed a tensile strength of 31.34 MPa, a flexural strength of 97.20 MPa, and a noteworthy impact energy of 28.5 kJ/mm2 whereas the sisal fiber when tested with 20% v/v fiber content, gave tensile strength of 8.42 MPa, a flexural strength of 8.03 MPa, and a noteworthy impact energy of 2.36x10-6 kJ/mm2. These results highlight the potential of Calotropis gigantea fibers in developing bio-composites with enhanced impact resistance.