Study of mechanical and thermal behaviours of zea-coir hybrid polyester composites

Abstract The current investigation is to develop the Zea-Coir (ZC) fibers reinforced polyester hybrid composite using a compression sheet molding process. Hybrid composites made with naturally available fibers are finding applications in many of the engineering fields due to their low cost and strong nature of the natural fibers. The composites were manufactured with polyester resin and Zea-Coir fibers were used at a ratio of 60:40 (by volume) with five different proportions of Zea-Coir natural fiber. The mechanical and thermal behaviors of Zea-Coir hybrid composite were analyses by tensile, flexural, impact strength and DSC synthesis. The highest tensile strength value of 25.4 MPa, the flexural strength value of 34.6 MPa and the impact strength value of 45.3 kJ/mm2 were obtained from Zea-Coir reinforced polyester hybrid composite.