Investigation on Impact Behavior of Rice Husk Impregnated Coir-Vinyl Ester Composites

Summary The use of natural fibers and bio-particles as reinforcement in polymeric composites is gaining keen interest in the field of cellulose based composite materials, due to its attractive properties such as light weight, low cost and biodegradability etc. Several studies in the past have reported major improvement in the mechanical behaviors of fiber reinforced polymer composites by impregnating bio-particulate with the matrix system. This investigation is aimed at introducing a hybrid reinforcement based polymer composites which uses rice husk as bio-particles and green husk coir as fibrous reinforcement. The composite sheets were fabricated as per full factorial design of experimental plan by varying the fabrication parameters namely fiber length, fiber content and particulate content. The effects of fabrication parameters on the impact properties of the composites were analyzed and favorable conditions to yield better impact strength were determined. The X-ray diffraction and Scanning electron microscopy techniques were used to characterize the bindability of rice husk and coir fibers in the resin system. A major improvement in the impact properties was inferred on impregnating rice husk bio-particles in coir-vinyl ester composites.