Fabricating and investigating the mechanical performance of hybrid natural composite made with jute, pineapple leaf and water hyacinth fibers

Bio-composite are developed to be used as sustainable materials to replace non-renewable and synthetic fiber made composites. This study focused on hybridizing jute, pineapple leaf fiber (PALF) and, water hyacinth fibers and testing the combined strength of the fibers for three different ratios. The mechanical properties such as hardness, impact, flexural and tensile strength of the hybridized composites were analyzed. The composite with ratio 50:30:20 of pineapple leaf, jute, and water hyacinth fiber showed better results with maximum tensile strength (24 MPa), flexural strength (113.25 MPa) and, hardness (67.91). However, the composite with ratio of 60:25:15 showed better impact strength (905.56 KJ/m 2 ). Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used for observing fractured surface after conducting tensile test which showed heterogeneous fiber distribution for using hand lay-up technique and fiber pull out at the sections where force was applied. The results showed that the hybridization enhanced some properties. Experimental data led to the conclusive remark that composite C comprising of highest amount of PALF (60%), moderate amount of jute fiber (25%), and lowest amount of water hyacinth (15%) yielded optimization of performance. In addition, hybrid composite equipped with 50% PALF, 30% jute fiber, and 20% water hyacinth was found to yield maximization of tensile strength. The investigation confirmed that the hybrid composite can be utilized for suitable applications including automobile panels and furniture tools.