Mechanical property evaluation of glass-jute fiber reinforced polymer composites

The natural fibers such as jute, coir, hemp, sisal etc. are randomly used as reinforcements for composite materials because of its various advantages such as low cost, low densities, low energy consumption over conventional fibers. In addition, they are renewable as well as biodegradable, and indeed wide varieties of fibers are locally available. In this study, glass–jute fiber reinforced polymer composite is fabricated, and the mechanical properties such as tensile, flexural and impact behavior are investigated. The materials selected for the studies were jute fiber and glass fiber as the reinforcement and epoxy resin as the matrix. The hand lay‐out technique was used to fabricate these composites. Fractured surface were comprehensively examined in scanning electron microscope (SEM) to determine the microscopic fracture mode. A numerical procedure based on the finite element method was then applied to evaluate the overall behavior of this composite using the experimentally applied load. Results showed that by incorporating the optimum amount of jute fibers, the overall strength of glass fiber reinforced composite can be increased and cost saving of more than 30% can be achieved. It can thus be inferred that jute fiber can be a very potential candidate in making of composites, especially for partial replacement of high‐cost glass fibers for low load bearing applications. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.