Study on mechanical characteristics of woven cotton/bamboo hybrid reinforced composite laminates

In this study, two fabrics namely cotton/cotton woven fabric having cotton yarn in both warp and weft direction; and cotton/bamboo woven fabric with cotton yarn (warp direction) and bamboo yarn (weft direction) were selected. Compression moulding method has been used to fabricate cotton/cotton and cotton/bamboo woven fabric reinforced composites with epoxy resin as a matrix material. The mechanical properties of cotton/cotton and cotton/bamboo reinforced composites had been compared under five different fiber loading conditions (30, 35, 40, 45 and 50 wt.%) and the fractured morphology was analyzed using scanning electron microscope. It was noted that cotton/bamboo reinforced composite with 45 wt.% fiber loading exhibited the best mechanical properties namely tensile, flexural, impact, compression, and inter laminar shear stress (ILSS), due to its weft direction of bamboo yarn. (C) 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.