Fabrication of Chemically Treated Pure-Bred Coconut Leaf Sheath Fibre Reinforced Composites and Determination of Mechanical Properties

In this work an effort was taken to introduce coconut leaf sheath individual fibre extracted from pure-bred coconut tree. Durability of the fibres was assessed by exposing to the ambient conditions up to long time and reinforcing them after alkali treatment into aerospace Huntsman grade epoxy matrix for making composites by hand layup cum rolling. Mechanical properties of the composites were assessed according to ASTM D 638-14, 790-17 and 6110-08 standards. Coconut epoxy composites had exhibited tensile strength, modulus of 50.68, 765.79 MPa, respectively at 25.3 wt% reinforcement. Three-point bend test make known the flexural strength, modulus of 85.39 MPa, 5.7 GPa at 13.67, lowest i.e. 6.96 wt% fibre reinforcement. Charpy impact strength of 13.53 kJ/m(2) was achieved at highest fibre reinforcement level of 25.03 wt%. Mechanically tested specimens were further examined under SEM to know the fibre-matrix bonding.