Materials Today: Proceedings 22 (2020) 541–545

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Materials Today: Proceedings

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Development of mechanical properties in banana fiber composite

M.V.V. Muralikrishna a, T.S.A. Surya Kumari a, R. Gopi b, Ganesh Babu Loganathan c
a
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Saveetha School of Engineering, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India
b
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Adhi College of Engineering and Technology, Kanchipuram, Tamil Nadu, India
c
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Tishk International University, KRG, Iraq

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The main objective of this article is to study the utilization of natural fibres in polymer composites. In this
Received 21 May 2019 article concentrated on reinforcement of polymer plastics with different proportions of banana and glass
Received in revised form 13 August 2019 fibre composites. Since, epoxy based hybrid (glass/banana) composites play vital role in developing light
Accepted 20 August 2019
weight structural materials, this study focuses on utilizing glass/banana as reinforcement fiber loading
Available online 9 September 2019
fiber is constant in epoxy resin. This composite was fabricated using hand lay-up process this influence
of glass/banana loading on the mechanical properties of was studied initially. Test results revealed that
Keywords:
the composite glass/banana composition has better mechanical properties.
Natural fiber
Composition
Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Hand lay-up method Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Confer-
Banana fiber ence on Materials Engineering and Characterization 2019.
Mechanical properties

1. Introduction tion. Vasanta V Cholachagudda et al. [7] investigates the effect of

coir fiber as the major reinforcement and rice husk as an additional
The previous research in natural fiber reinforced composite and fiber to improve the mechanical property of polymer composite
the results of the contemporaries working in this field have been with epoxy resin as the base material prepared by hand layup pro-
documented. Several other studies, which are in relation to the cess according to ASTM standards. Test specimens are prepared
current work, have also been referred too. The various researchers with different weight fractions of coir fiber at the optimization
in this study and the several other related studies have been given point of tensile test a small percentage of rice husks are added
due credit and their results have been briefly cited herein. The vari- and tests were conducted and the improvement in mechanical
ability of mechanical properties of banana fibers with respect to properties (tensile strength and flexural strength) of the hybrid
diameter, testing speed and gauge length are analyzed. Tenacity composite material is observed. Afrozmehar et al. [8] enhanced
of the fibers significantly improved for the fibers with lower linear the surface properties of the fibers by stearic acid treatment in
density. An increase in speed resulted in improvement of fiber view of obtaining better interfacial reaction between the matrix
properties to a certain degree. Higher gauge lengths resulted in and the fiber of the composite, which in turn enhances the
poor properties due to an increase in flaws in the structure. The mechanical properties of the laminate on the whole. Numbers of
banana fibers showed very high variability in linear density and laminates are prepared with different soaking time to be able to
mechanical properties [1–5]. S. Muthukumar et al. [6] investigates subject them to various test methods. G.C. Onuegbu et al. [9] stud-
about developing polymer matrix composite using coconut shell ied Polypropylene composites with ground nut husk powder at
powder and groundnut shell powder in different volume and eval- particle sizes, the polypropylene composites were prepared in an
uating its tensile strength, impact strength and flexural property extrusion moulding machine and the resulting composites were
and hydrophilic behavior along with engineering application of extruded as sheets. Some mechanical properties of the prepared
resulting composites. The experimental investigation on mechani- composites were determined using Instron testing machine and
cal behavior viz. Tensile strength and flexural strength, Impact Izod impart tester respectively. Presence of pulverised ground
strength of composite, Material is greatly influenced by the coco- nut husk improved the tensile strength, modulus, flexural strength
nut shell powder and groundnut shell powder filled volume frac- and impact strength of the composites and these properties
increased with increase in filler contents and decrease in the filler
particle size. G. U. Raju et al. [10] studied the thermal properties
E-mail addresses: gopi.mech@adhi.edu.in (R. Gopi), ganesh.babu@ishik.edu.iq
such as thermal conductivity, linear thermal expansion and speci-
(G. Babu Loganathan)

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.matpr.2019.08.189
2214-7853/Ó 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the International Conference on Materials Engineering and Characterization 2019.
542 M.V.V. Muralikrishna et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 22 (2020) 541–545

fic heat of groundnut shell particles reinforced polymer composite 4) Cobalt (Catalyst)
materials and optimize it, also justifies the selection of Groundnut 5) Polyvinyl (Separator)
shell based on the lignin content of groundnut shell fiber which is
much greater than that of banana, baggase, rice husk, jute, hemp, Glass fibre composite:
kenaf and sisal fibers.
In a tropical country, fibrous plants are available in abundance 1) E-glass fibre
and some of them like banana are agricultural crops [11]. Banana 2) Polyester Resin
bast fibre is a waste product of banana plant cultivation. It is a 3) Methyl ethyl ketone (Accelerator)
lingo-cellulosic fibre, which can be extracted from the pseudo- 4) Cobalt (Catalyst)
stem of banana plant with better mechanical properties. Banana 5) Polyvinyl (Separator
fibre possesses good specific strength properties comparable to
those of conventional materials, like glass fibre [12]. 2.4. Binding mixture
Different types of arrangement of the hybrid composite are
made by using glass fibres and plain-woven carbon fibre and fab- It is one of the commercial thermoset polymers which contain a
ricated by using vacuum assisted resin transfer moulding was used number of carbon, C@C double bonds. Unsaturated means that the
to fabricate hybrid composite panels. The arrangement of carbon resin is capable of being cured from a liquid to a solid state. The
fibre and glass fibre respectively were high in terms of mechanical curing reaction for polyester resin will start immediately upon
properties [13]. The mechanical properties of ecofriendly products addition of a suitable catalyst and accelerator. The polyester resin
are combined to form a hybrid composite material and their best used in this work is normally pre-accelerated. The accelerator pro-
possible applications [14]. The current status of the hybrid technol- portions are already adjusted to give the most suitable gelling and
ogy in terms of their availability and property, their trends and hardening characteristics. Once die catalyst is added, the curing
including applications of smart hybrid composite [15]. reaction starts immediately at room temperature. The proportions
In this research, high performance polypropylene composites, of catalysts are recommended ranging between 1% and 4% of die
using continuous banana fibre as reinforcement for use in various resin weight, depending on die type of the catalyst. In this work,
applications was developed. MAPP as the coupling agent, was die catalyst is Methyl–Ethyl–Ketone–Peroxide (MEKP) The propor-
added to the composite to improve the bond between the polymer tion of catalyst was chosen on a 2% scale (20 ml per litre polyester
and banana natural fibre. The composites were fabricated by com- resin).
pression molding machine. To improve mechanical properties,
banana fibre configurations were varied and tested. Mechanical
3. Design and calculation of fracture strength
properties such as tensile strength and flexural strength of the
composites were studied as a function of fibre content. There is
3.1. Design of composite materials as per ASTM standard testing
limited literature on the effects of banana fibre configuration to
machine:
mechanical properties of polymer composite. Thus, significant con-
tribution of this paper is the evaluation of mechanical properties of
Solid works is a software which used to solid modeling com-
glass/Banana fibre composites at 30% fibre by weight of various
puter–aided design (cad) version 2016 used 2D model extruded
continuous fibre’s configurations.
into 3D modeling by required measurements. The overall module
of glass fiber with step by step procedure as shown in Figs. 1, 2
2. Materials and methods &3

2.1. Banana fibre

4. Testing methods
The banana fibre used in the study is 10 mm long chopped
banana fibre. The banana stalk was supplied from ROPE Interna- The machine used for Fracture test is Instron 4204 Universal
tionals, Chennai. Banana fibres were obtained from the pseudo Testing Machine.
stem of the banana plant. The pseudo stem, which is surrounded After finishing the fabrication of specimen, that specimen is fit-
and supported by leaf sheathes, is called the stalk. The leaves were ted on the machine by the procedure mentioned below.
separated from the pseudo stem and cut into 10 mm length. The
extraction of the fibre from the stripped leaf sheath (cleaned well)
The testing of the specimen is done with the help of Instron
was done by hand scraping using a soft wooden plank. The pith 4204 Universal Testing Machine.
was then removed continuously until the fibres appeared clean.
The 2 bolts is inserted in the 8 mm diameter hole and fixed in
the testing machine. Thus the specimen will be fixed in the test-
2.2. Mould preparation ing machine for conducting CT test. The testing machine will be
connected with the computer to find out the required results

Fabrication of banana fibre composite and glass fibre composite. digitally.

Evaluation of fracture toughness of the banana fibre composite.
Now switch ON the machine to find out the crack produced in

Evaluation of fracture toughness of the glass fibre composite the specimen. Note down load which produce the crack in spec-

Comparison of Experimental result. imen from the computer.

Follow the same procedure for various specimens and find out
2.3. Materials used the load from the computer.

This the testing procedure to find out the crack produced in the
Banana fibre composite: CT specimen.

1) Banana fibre 4.1. Calculation of fracture toughness:

2) Polyester Resin
3) Methyl ethyl ketone (Accelerator) Stress intensity factor K can be considered as estimate of frac-
ture toughness.
 M.V.V. Muralikrishna et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 22 (2020) 541–545 543

Fig. 1. (a) Square module, (b) Hole requirement for testing and (c) Hole requirement for testing mirror entities:

Fig. 2. (a) Hole requirement for testing has mirror square entities depth of cut, (b) Module after imaginary chamfer cut at 90 degrees’ in a slanted position and (c) Overall
module in different views.

a – crack length
A
F W
-geometry factor

     (    2
A 2 þ WA A A
F ¼  1:5
0:866 þ 4:66  13:32
W 1WA W W
 3  4 )
A A
þ14:72  5:6
W W

Fig. 3. Overall module has treated with glass fiber. Specifications of ASTM D5045:
The specifications of ASTM Standard for fracture toughness test
as shown in Fig. 4
It depends on the

1. Load
2. Flow depth
3. geometry

Critical stress intensity factor for mode 1

  
P A
K ic ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffi F
B W W
where

P – load at which crack propagate

B – Thickness of the test specimen
w – Length of the specimen Fig. 4. ASTM Standard for fracture toughness test.
544 M.V.V. Muralikrishna et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 22 (2020) 541–545

5. Result and discussions is observed. The values of Kic were obtained by using equations.
Three banana and glass fiber composites test specimens (speci-
The fracture tests were conducted on three samples for each men1, specimen 2, and specimen 3) for the same banana/ glass
composite. The fracture test was carried out in universal testing fibre composite were tested in the universal machine. The varia-
machine. At the end of the test maximum load at crack propagate tions in load for the same banana and glass fibre composite were

Table 1
Average Load for banana fibre composite.

Volume fraction in % Load in N Average load in N

Specimen 1 Specimen 2 Specimen 3
13 16.53 18.66 22.4 16.56
17 18.4 18.6 18.8 18.66
20 22.2 22.7 22.5 22.46

Table 2
Average Load for glass fibre composite.

Volume fraction in % Load in N Average load in N

Specimen 1 Specimen 2 Specimen 3
13 19.8 19.2 19.5 19.3
17 22.2 21.9 22.4 22.15
20 25.3 25.6 25.7 25.5

Fig. 5. Average load of glass and banana fibre composites.

Fig. 6. Comparison of fracture toughness of glass & banana fibre composite.

 M.V.V. Muralikrishna et al. / Materials Today: Proceedings 22 (2020) 541–545 545

Table 3 matrix. Comparison of the experiments results are filler of added

Comparison of Experimental Fracture values. another composite. The effects of chopped glass fibre and banana
Composites Fiber length Volume Experimental fracture fibre content on the fracture property of polyester composites were
(mm) fraction % toughness (Kic) investigated.
Glass fiber composite 10 13 4.75 Fracture toughness tests were performed on GFRP, BFRP com-
17 5.4 posites with fibre fraction volume percentages of 13%, 17%, 20%
20 6.8 Vf, It can be concluded that fracture toughness is improved with
Banana fiber composite 10 13 4.07 the reinforcement of glass fibre as well as banana fibre. Increased
17 4.59 volume fraction leads to increase the load required to propagate
20 5.53
the crack, due to that fracture toughness of both composite were
increased with increasing fibre volume. When compare the glass
fibre composite with banana fibre composite, fracture toughness
Table 4 of glass fibre composites are better than the banana fibre compos-
Mode 1 fracture toughness test readings. ites. More over fracture toughness of banana fibre composite is
Composites Combination Mode 1 fracture toughness near to the glass fibre composite. Banana fibre are eco-friendly so
Banana 0.12  103
it is better for replace glass fibre instead of natural fibre for better
Banana/glass 0.08  103 environment. So the mechanical usage of glass has replaced by
Banana/glass/banana 3.4  103 banana fiber reduces width of glass fiber hence banana fiber has
Glass/banana/glass 1.2  103 gained experimental proven.
Glass 4.6  103

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