Influence of nano-silica on mechanical properties of Indian almond fiber reinforced hybrid epoxy composites

Natural fiber reinforced composites are useful in engineering applications as energy saving material due to their light weight. However, the lower mechanical properties limit it service compared to conventional material. Hence, the purpose of this study is to improve the mechanical properties of the natural fiber composites using nano-silica particles. Indian almond fiber-based epoxy composite was manufactured with different quantity of nano-silica. Totally, five materials were fabricated namely E (Epoxy), EI (Epoxy/Indian almond), EIS1 (Epoxy/Indian almond/0.5 wt% silica), EIS2 (Epoxy/Indian almond/1 wt% silica), and EIS3 (Epoxy/Indian almond/2 wt% silica) by conventional hand layup technique. Mechanical properties such as tensile, flexural, impact, and hardness were tested. Further, water absorption behavior of the materials was analyzed to understand the dimensional stability of the material. Results showed that EIS3 composite exhibited the higher tensile strength of 77 MPa, flexural strength of 109 MPa, impact strength of 4.31 KJ/m(2), and hardness of 93 shore D. Mechanical properties of EIS3 composites were improved due to the reinforcing effect of Indian almond fiber (40 wt%) and nano-silica (2 wt%). Water absorption study showed that the EI composite displayed the maximum water absorption of 14.6% at the soaking time of 6 hours due to hydrophilic tendency of fiber. This investigation concludes that EIS3 composite could be applicable in engineering applications for constructional work owing to its improved performance.