Development of E-Glass-Sisal Fiber Reinforced with EpoxyComposite for Automotive Body Panel

Abstract

Composite material is a material consisting of two or more physically or chemically distinctphase, suitably arranged or distributed. Recently car manufacturers have been interested inincorporating natural composite materials into both interior and exterior parts to lower overallweight of the vehicle thus decrease fuel consumption and to raise increase strength to weightratio of the material for automotive body application.The objective of this research project is to present the processing techniques of specimenpreparation and conducting mechanical test which is aimed to propose a best material forautomotive body panel.In this research project, experimental characterization of the basic mechanical properties ofnatural (sisal) fibers and E-glass fiber composite was conducted. The important property such astensile and flexural analysis of sisal and E-glass fiber composite has been carried out. Sisal fiberand glass fiber composite laminates were prepared by hand layup method by varying ratio ofeach material for tensile and flexural tests. Then samples were cut with standard size of 220mmX 4mm X 25mm and tested by using UTM both tensile and flexural tests.The material property results which are obtained from tensile and flexural test results indicatethat, pure glass fiber composite has a better mechanical property than sisal fiber.Natural (sisal) fiber is also a promising material for vehicle body application by reinforcing itwith E-glass fiber with epoxy adhesive. By increasing the thickness of the material it is possibleto raise the overall strength of sisal-E-glass composite material for producing component ofmedium load applications such as; welding shield, light weight vehicle bumper and automobilebody applications. Due to their low cost and availability, it is a better idea to substitute themetals with sisal -E-glass fiber composite which is aimed to reduce fuel consumption and overallweight of Automobile.