aMechanical Engineering Department, V.R. Siddhartha Engineering College, Vijayawada-520 007, India.
bMech. Engg. Dept., College of Engineering, Andhra University, Visakhapatnam, India.
Composite materials and layered structures based on natural plant fibers are increasingly regarded as an alternative to glass fiber reinforced parts. One of their major fields of application can be found in structural components for the automotive industry. For environmental concern on synthetic fibers (such as glass, carbon, ceramic fibers, etc.) natural fibers such as Sisal, flax, hemp, jute, kenaf, etc. are widely used. Composites consisting of polypropylene reinforced with elephant grass fiber (Scientific name: Pennisetum purpureum) were prepared by injection molding technique with varying fiber weight percentages (0%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25%). The developed elephant grass fiber reinforced composites were then tested for their tensile properties. The results show that tensile strength increases with increase in the fiber weight percentage; however, after a certain fiber weight percentage, the tensile strength decreases again. The tensile modulus changes in an irregular manner and it is maximum at higher fiber weight percentage. Elephant grass fiber introduced in the present study could be used as an effective reinforcement for making composites, which have an added advantage of being light weight.
Natural fiber, Elephant Grass fiber, Polypropylene Composite, Tensile strength
