MECHANICAL BEHAVIOR OF BANANA REINFORCED EPOXY COMPOSITE BY FINITE ELEMENT METHOD

In the recent years, there is a shift in interest of engineers and researchers to natural fibres from synthetic fibres. Natural fibres have high strength, are light weight and are also inexpensive than the traditional synthetic fibres. In addition, the fibres obtained naturally are biodegradability and eco-friendly in nature. Banana fibre is a derived product by cultivation of banana fruit and thus plentiful in environment. Banana fibre is classified among the strongest naturally obtained fibre and therefore when reinforced with other few binding resins can be utilized for different applications. Epoxy resin are suitable matrix for composite creation since they have outstanding binding characteristics. The (FEA) Finite Element Analysis of epoxy-banana composite shows that the maximum value of impact, flexural and tensile load that the composite can bear is 1000 N, 900 N and 2100 N respectively. According to this investigation it can be concluded that because of their outstanding load bearing characteristics epoxy-banana composite can be utilized for several medium load industrial uses to high load industrial uses. It is observed that the composite with least volume percent of epoxy has better mechanical strength and can bear higher deformation under higher load for tensile and flexural tests and for the impact strength results, the increase in fibre % results in lower impact strength. Also, the increase in higher vol. % of epoxy results in lower stiffness and higher deflection in the specimens, except for the specimen with 40% vol. of epoxy which obtained the most optimal results.