Author(s): Nwambu CN, Iyebeye KO, Ajimatanrareje GA, Onyedikachukwu DE and Ekwedigwe CM

Abstract: This paper experimentally investigated the damage tolerance of hybrid composite structures containing different concentrations of Banana fibre (BF) and Sponge Gourd fibres (SGF) for Hockey stick application. The weight percent of 5, 10, 20 and fibre sizes of 150 µm, 300 µm and 600 µm were used in this research. The design of the experiment was done via Taguchi's robust design. `The effects of hybrid concentrations on the damage tolerance were also investigated. The optimisation model of natural hybrid composite demonstrated excellent damage tolerance at different concentrations of the reinforcements with maximum hardness and impact strength obtained at 5%wt BF + 5%wt SGF sample and 10% wt BF + 10%wt SGF sample with fibre size of 300 um. The model explains 87.4% of impact strength variability, with a predicted R-squared value of 91.07%. The experimental result collaborated with the optimized results as the natural hybrid composite samples recorded higher damage tolerance than the sample with only epoxy resin. The improvements in mechanical properties are guaranteed by the distribution of BF and SGF in the epoxy resin matrix as evidenced in the microstructural analysis.

Pages: 25-31 | Views: 179 | Downloads: 34

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