Mechanical and physical improvements of mesh date palm fiber reinforced epoxy composite

This study aimed to investigate the improvement of mechanical and physical properties of epoxy matrix through reinforced it with different weights ratios of mesh date palm fiber to obtain the best performance of produced composite. Three samples containing 20% (D1), 30% (D2), and 40% (D3) percentages of mesh date palm fibers were fabricated and tested mechanically and physically. The results showed that, the high increase addition of mesh date palm fibers significantly improved the mechanical properties of the composite indicated by the flexural strength increased from 46.7 MPa for the pure epoxy to 65.16 MPa for the D3 sample. The ultimate tensile strength also improved from 27 MPa to 36.3 MPa for the D3. In addition, the impact strength increased to 26.3 J/m² for the D3 sample compared to 17.3 J/m² for the pure epoxy. On the other hand, the thermal conductivity decreased from 0.41 W/m·K for pure epoxy to 0.375 W/m·K for sample D3, which means gives a good insulator. The water absorption of sample D3 increased to 2.32% after 24 h, compared to 0.851%.