Mechanical Characteristics of the Jute Fibre Reinforced Polymer Composites

Fiber-reinforced polymer composites have played a dominant role for a long time in a variety of applications due to their high specific strength and modulus. The fiber which serves as a reinforcement in reinforced plastics may be synthetic or natural. Past studies show that only synthetic fibers such as glass and carbon have been widely used in fiber-reinforced plastics. Although these synthetic fiber-reinforced plastics possess high specific strength, their fields of application are limited because of their inherently higher cost of production. In this context, an investigation has been carried out to make use of jute, a natural fiber abundantly available in India. Natural fibers are not only strong and lightweight but are also relatively very cheap. The present work describes the development and characterization of a new set of natural fiber–based polymer composites consisting of jute as reinforcement and epoxy resin. The newly developed composites are characterized with respect to their physical and mechanical characteristics. Experiments are carried out to study the effect of fiber loading on the physical and mechanical behavior of these epoxy-based polymer composites. This work also includes the comparison of elastic properties of composites using micromechanical models with experimental and existing analytical formulations such as the rule of mixtures, Halpin–Tsai, and Lewis–Nielsen models, which are extensively used in material modeling.