Experimental Investigation of Coir Fiber Reinforced Bio-Composite for Automobile Application

Abstract

In today’s developing era the concern for the prevention of non-biodegradable resources has attracted researchers to develop biodegradable materials based on green principles. The fibers from agriculture waste give good advantages over conventional synthetic fibers such as low cost and density, non-toxicity and waste disposal problems. In this work coir fibers have been used as the reinforcing agent with corn starch and glycerol as the matrix to increase the effectiveness of coir fibers. The coir fibers were obtained from disregarded coconut shells that if not properly processed constitute an environmental hazard. The composites have been fabricated by injection moulding method followed by high speed mixing and twin screw extrusion process. In this experimental study mechanical and physical properties have been evaluated by changing the proportion and length of the coir fiber and matrix material. The tensile, flexural, impact and hardness tests have been performed on newly fabricated green composites. Depending on their specific characteristics, could find a position within the wide scale of domestic and commercial applications and products. Experimental results showed tensile, static and Dynamic properties of the composites are greatly influenced by the increasing percentage of reinforcement, lengths of the fiber and indicate coir can be used as potential reinforcing material for many structural and non-structural automobile applications.