Effect of Nano Clay on Mechanical Behavior of Bamboo Fiber Reinforced Polyester Composites

Composite materials play a vital role in many industrial applications. Researchers are working on fabrication of new composite materials worldwide to enhance the applicability of these materials. The present study aimed to investigate the effect of Nano clay loading as filler on the mechanical properties of the bamboo fiber yarn reinforced polyester composite. Five different types of composite specimen were prepared with Nano clay loadings of 0 to 4 % weight fraction using hand lay-up technique. It was observed that the composite sheet with 1 wt % nano clay content exhibited the optimized tensile and flexural strength. However the mechanical properties tend to decrease with addition of nano clay content from 2 to 4 wt %. In spite of that the values of mechanical properties with 2 and 3 wt % nano clay content is higher than 0 wt % nano clay content.