Impact Resistance of Bamboo Fabric Reinforced Polypropylene Composites and Their Hybrids

Abstract

Bamboo in woven fabric form embedded in the polymer results in easier material handling during production and reduction in the manufacturing cost of the composites. In the current study, the effect of hybridization of bamboo fabric with glass fibres on the impact properties of the composites made from them has been studied. The composites were fabricated using a compression moulding method. Bamboo fibres were in the form of twill-weave fabric. Impact tests were conducted using an instrumented drop weight impact test system. It can be seen that the peak load and energy absorbed increase with the increase in the applied impact energy. For the BPP composites, the applied energy of the impact was increased until penetration was occurred at 55 J. While for the BGPP hybrid composites, they were penetrated at the applied energy of only 35 J. However, The hybrid composites exhibit a greater peak load resistance than the BPP composites. The crack damage in the composites was also reduced with the presence of fabric reinforcement. These preliminary results indicate that bamboo fabric is truly a new contender for developing excellent and balanced properties of composites such as for the interior components.