Rubber wood, coconut shells and fabrics tested for use in hybrid composites

Opening a way to a new hybrid composite, researchers have tested hybrid composites made of rubberwood, coconut shell and textile fabrics (woven cotton and polyester fabrics).

Each of the hybrid composite fabricated: Cotton fabric reinforced hybrid composite (CtRHC) and Polyester fabric reinforced hybrid composite (PeHC), was reinforced with two, three and four layers cotton or polyester. The control samples were the composite without any textile fabric reinforcement. 

Flexural strength, impact strength, water absorption and thickness swelling tests were conducted to determine the mechanical and physical properties of the fabricated hybrid composites respectively. 

It was found that the flexural strength of these fabrics reinforced hybrid composites improved as compared to the control sample, which was without textile fabric. The result of flexural modulus of the hybrid composite fabricated demonstrated similar trend with its flexural strength. The flexural modulus of the hybrid composites improved with the presence of textile fabrics. Samples reinforced with textile fabrics exhibited higher values than the control sample. The reinforcement with 4 layers of textile fabric tended to decrease the flexural modulus slightly.