A fuzzy logic approach for modelling and prediction of mechanical properties of hybrid abaca-reinforced polymer composite

At present, hybrid natural fibre-reinforced polymer composites are popularly used for their remarkable specific strength. Natural fibre polymer composites have been explored by the researchers for their sprawling use in engineering applications. To achieve better mechanical properties, it is needed to test hybrid natural fibre composites with all possible combinations of their compositions which require a lot of resources. Thus, the present work deals with the investigation of mechanical properties of hybrid abaca–epoxy composites. Experiments were carried out according to full factorial design with three input parameters namely weight per cent of abaca fibre, particle size of red mud and weight per cent of red mud. Subsequent to this, a fuzzy model is developed to predict the mechanical properties such as tensile, flexural and impact strength of hybrid abaca–epoxy composites based on the experimental results obtained by their mechanical characterisation. Membership functions were constructed such that the fuzzy model can precisely predict the mechanical properties of hybrid composites. Moreover, a set of test case experiments were conducted so as to validate the fuzzy model. It was inferred from these test case results that the developed model can be used to predict mechanical properties of hybrid composites with a maximum accuracy of 87%.