Study of Tensile Strength of Opuntia Ficus Indica Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Composites

In this present study, naturally available opuntia ficus indica (cactus) fiber is used, as reinforcing material. Cactus fiber belongs to the family cactaceae, which is reported to contain about 130 genera and nearly 1500 species. Composite materials are replacing standard Engineering metals and alloys for many applications. Since it is abundantly available in nature and majority of it is getting wasted without being used as reinforcement in engineering applications. In this work the mechanical properties cactus fiber reinforced with epoxy matrix. And also investigated the effect of fiber volume fraction on the tensile strength, flexural and compression strength, and hardness behavior of cactus fiber was studied. Cactus fiber reinforced with epoxy matrix composites is prepared with varied fiber lengths (8 mm and 10 mm) and for varied weight fraction (20%, 25% and 30%) of the fibers. The short cactus fibers are treated with 5% of Sodium Hydroxide (NaOH) solution. In the present work, the effect of the fiber treatment, fiber length and fiber loading on the mechanical properties are investigated. The results show that the Alkali Treated cactus fiber reinforced composites have better mechanical properties than untreated composites. The 10 mm fiber length reinforced composite shown improved mechanical properties than 5 mm fiber length reinforced composite. Increase in mechanical properties is seen when the fiber content in the composite is increased from 20% to 25% and 25% to 30%. The 30% weight of the cactus fiber reinforced composite has shown higher values of mechanical properties.