Effect of Cenosphere Addition on Mechanical Properties of Bamboo and E-Glass Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Hybrid Composites

Main Article Content

B.K. Venkatesh
R. Saravanan

Abstract

Cenosphere is a ceramic-rich industrial waste produced during burning of coal in the thermal power plants. This study deals with the effect of cenosphere as particulate filler on mechanical behaviour of woven bamboo-glass hybrid composites. The hybrid composite consists of bamboo and E-glass fiber as reinforcement and epoxy as matrix. Cenosphere of different weight percentage (0.5, 1, 1.5 and 2 %) was added to the hybrid composite. The samples were tested as per ASTM standards for their mechanical properties to establish the effect of filler content. It is found that the mechanical properties are significantly influenced by addition of waste ceramic filler cenosphere up to 2 wt.% and increases the tensile, flexural and inter-laminar shear strength in comparison to unfilled composite. Finite element analysis is also done using Midas NFX and the simulation results are compared with experimental results. From the results, it has been found that the experimental values obtained from tensile testing and flexure testing nearly matches with finite element values.

Article Details

Section
Articles