Investigation on Mechanical characterization of abutilon indicum fiber nonwoven fabric reinforced epoxy composite materials

Natural fibres find their way into many engineering applications in the automobile and aerospace sectors owing to their eco-friendly nature. Natural fiber produced from agricultural residue, is capable of enhancing the mechanical and thermal properties of composite materials while lowering their overall cost. The main aim of the current study is to investigate such natural fiber, nonwoven fabric reinforced composites. In this work, samples reinforced by non-woven Abutilon indicum (AI) fibre are manufactured with varying fibre weight percentages, such as 20%, 25%, 30%, 35%, 40%, using the hand layup method and needle-punching process to make the fabric and composite. Mechanical tests such as tensile, flexural, and compressive tests were using a universal testing machine, and impact tests were performed using an izod impact tester, in addition to morphological and thermal studies were performed on the above composites and their respect compositions. The effect of the fibres on FTIR and TGA was also investigated. In order to understand the bonding behaviors and the fractured composite specimens were examined by a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The findings revealed that the highest values of tensile and flexural strength were observed to be 39.796 MPa and 62.329 MPa at 35 wt% fibre and maximum impact strength and compressive strength were 0.441 joules and 47.45 Mpa at 35 wt% fibre.