Mechanical and ballistic properties of compressed coir-epoxy composite

As aerospace industry has expanded with implementation of new technology, there is a need to reduce cost and weight for new aerospace products with safety as primary concern. Another consideration is product which could reduce environment pollution which related to implementation of Kyoto protocol. Current preference of materials can be consider less aiding in preserving green environment. The effect is deteriorating the environment from the event of material processing and production. Thus, the concept of green technology for aerospace product suit the matters being considered. Currently, green technology for aerospace product is suitable to be introduced in composite. One of the advantage of composite is lightweight if compared with metal-based product. To further reduce the weight of composite, it could be achieved with the introduction of green technology. One of the solution is to use natural fibre as one of constituent of composite. With the weight variation of natural fibre, coir fibre is one of natural fibre which low in weight and has the potential to withstand impact event. The impact resistance characteristic is important issue to be investigate when composite is operating at high speed condition. Since the literature about coir composite is lacking, further investigation of its properties and behaviour is required to evaluate impact resistance characteristic. In this study, the compressed coir-epoxy composite was fabricated using combination of hand lay-up method and compression machine. Then, compression effect of compressed coir-epoxy composite is experimentally investigated and evaluated by its mechanical properties. The ballistic impact properties was also evaluated from velocity of projectiles and energy absorption. For mechanical properties of 25 wt% coir fibre, the tensile modulus of elasticity is 17.42 MPa and flexural modulus is 74.02 MPa. For ballistic impact properties, the ballistic limit value of 1 layer specimen is about 88.25 m/s.

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