Author : S.Sabinesh, C.J.Thomas Renald and S.Sathish

Natural fiber reinforced composite materials are one such capable material which replaces the conventional and synthetic materials for the practical applications where there require less weight and energy conservation. Increasing concern about global warming and depleting petroleum reserves have made scientists to focus more on the use of natural fibers such as cotton, bagasse, coir, sisal, jute etc. This has resulted in creation of more awareness about the use of natural fibers based materials mainly composites. This paper, which emphasis the importance of cotton fibers which are extracted from cotton plants, the tensile and flexural properties of the cotton fiber are studied and investigated. The mixed chopped cotton fiber reinforced composite is prepared using isophthallic polyester resin by hand lay-up process and the detailed preparation methodology is presented.

Keywords: Natural fibers, Cotton fiber, Polymer matrix composites, Isophthallic polyester composites

Article published in International Conference on Advances in Mechanical Sciences 2014, Special Issue-2 (Feb 2014)