Study of Hybridization Effect of New Developed Rice Straw mat/Glass Fiber Reinforced Polyester Composite

Rice comes in the second rank in the world's major cereal harvest. However, few studies investigate the effect of addition of rice straw as reinforcement to the polymer. In this study, a new mat of random rice straw fiber was developed to ensure a good distribution of rice straw. These rice straw mats were used as reinforcements to polyester. Besides, hybrid composites were manufactured from polyester reinforced with rice straw fiber mat as a natural fiber and glass fiber as synthetic fiber. Six different stacking sequences were made by alternating random glass fiber layers having different areal densities with four layers of the developed rice straw fiber mats. Tensile, flexural, shear, impact and water absorption properties of these hybrid composites were investigated. Generally, the mechanical properties of the composites are improved due to the addition of the glass fibers to the rice straw reinforcements that displays the positive effect of hybridization. The morphology of the fracture surfaces was investigated by scanning electron microscopy.