Abstract:
This research deals with the mechanical property and free vibration analysis of natural fibers-based epoxy polymer composite. Which has been identified as the most abundance natural fiber in Ethiopia and they are widely used for many applications due to its low cost, light weight, short growth cycle and high availability. In this study bamboo, sisal and false banana natural fibers with a polymer matrix of epoxy are used to prepare the polymer composites using hand layup assisted compression molding techniques. Characterization of single fiber testing has been conducted to determine the property of fibers. Chemical treatment of fiber has been applied to enhance the mechanical property of the composite. The composites were manufactured with a weight fraction of epoxy /fiber 60:40 ratio. Reducing the resonant amplitude of the vibration and increasing the mechanical property of the material is a crucial task in a machine component design process. The mechanical properties like tensile strength, tensile modulus, flexural and impact strength has been measured. Moreover, the vibration analysis is carried out using a LabVIEW integrated accelerometer set up to obtain natural frequencies of the composite materials. The result shows that a maximum tensile, flexural and impact strength of 216.24 MPa, 96.24 MPa and 43.04 Joule respectively are observed in bamboo fiber reinforced epoxy composite. The natural frequency is determined for all three types of composites. A lower mechanical property is observed in false banana fiber reinforced epoxy composite while the sisal fiber epoxy composite shows comparative results to bamboo fiber epoxy composite.