Sisal-glass hybrid composites reinforced with silica microparticles

Abstract

Abstract In recent years, studies of composite materials have focused on the use of natural fibres as an alternative to synthetic ones. Their attractive mechanical properties, sustainability, low cost and low weight have leveraged research in this area, with the potential of a variety of applications in the engineering field. In this paper, a Full Factorial Design (2161) experiment was performed to identify the effect of silica microparticle inclusions and the stacking sequence of glass fibre cross-ply fabric and short sisal fibre layers on the apparent density, tensile and flexural strength and modulus of hybrid epoxy composites. In general, the hybrid composites with higher number of glass fibre layers achieve higher values of tensile and flexural strength (348\u202fMPa and 663.28\u202fMPa), tensile and flexural modulus (22\u202fGPa and 2.50\u202fGPa) and higher apparent density (2.02\u202fg/cm³). It is, however, noteworthy that the incorporation of silica particles improves the mechanical performance of composites containing larger amounts of sisal fibres.