The morphological and mechanical characterization of UHMWPE based composite: an experimental study

Natural fiber and its hybrid composites have a promising future due to their economic, lightweight, environmentally superior, and sustainable properties. The purpose of this research is to explore the morphological and physical properties of composites made of hemp-epoxy and ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene-hemp-epoxy. The compression moulding technique is used to fabricate the UHMWPE -hemp hybrid composite and hemp-epoxy sample at a different orientation. These samples are subjected to different types of mechanical testing, including flexural, impact, hardness, and tensile tests at different strain rates as per ASTM standards. The result indicates that the flexural strength, impact strength, and hardness of the hybrid composite are more than the hemp composite. Scanning electron microscopy has been used to examine fractography at various strain rates. It is found that with the increase in the strain rate, tensile strength increases. It is observed that there is an increase of more than 56.49% in the specimen's strength with the addition of 8.3% ultrahigh molecular weight polyethene fiber reinforcement.