VOL. 10, NO. 13, JULY 2015 ISSN 1819-6608 ARPN Journal of Engineering and Applied Sciences © 2006-2015 Asian Research Publishing Network (ARPN). All rights reserved. www.arpnjournals.com 5518 EVALUATION OF MECHANICAL PROPERTIES OF KENAF BASED HYBRID COMPOSITE FOR AUTOMOTIVE COMPONENTS REPLACEMENT C. Elanchezhian, B. Vijaya Ramnath, Kaosik R., Nellaiappan T. K., Santhosh Kumar K., Kavirajan P. and Sughan M. U. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Sri Sairam Engineering College, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India E-Mail: elanchezhian.mech@sairam.edu.in ABSTRACT Tremendous growth of science and technology over the past few decades demands a new and hybrid material to meet variety of purposes. Composite materials are one among those new emerging engineering material which plays a major role in auto motive parts. Thus our project is based on valuating the mechanical properties and behavior of kenaf, banana, and neem fibres as hybrid composites which in case proposed for automotive components. These three were the dispersed phase and the epoxyresinas the matrix phase. We chose kenaf as the main reinforcement material as it does have promising properties on impact and tensile which are the most important while considering automotive components. The samples were made by using hand layup technique which is the conventional way of producing hybrid composites. Three samples were made. The first sample was made with kenaf fibre/ GFRP, another was with kenaf and banana fibres and the third was with kenaf and neem fibres. Thus the mechanical properties and behaviors of these samples were identified by Tensile, Impact, Flexural and Hardness tests and these properties were compared with existing automotive component properties. Keywords: natural fibers, kenaf, neem, banana fibers. 1. INTRODUCTION There are some materials that can be used as a replacement for glass. These materials include abaca, banana, neem, Jute, Ramie, pineapple leaf, and kenaf. Certain materials have some interesting features such as low density, high toughness, comparable specific strength properties, reduction in tool wear, ease of separation, decreased energy of fabrication. Kenaf, abaca, flax are considered as bast fibre composites and sisal is known as leaf fibre. The same flexural strength is shown by the bast fibres in comparison with glass fibres. These fibres can be used as an alternative to traditional materials as they have many attractive properties. The Natural fibres are biodegradable, renewable and are also abundantly available. These fibres mainly consist of cellulose, lignin and pectin. These characteristics of natural fibres vary with their types. These variations are based on the growing and harvesting methods the natural reinforced composite fibres are strong, non-hazardous, low weight. So, it can be used as an alternative material which can be used for buildings, shipping, automobiles, etc. Even though the natural fibres have several advantages, they carry some restrictions such as pitiable resistance to moisture especially absorption and low strength compared to synthetic fibre such as glass [1]. Kenaf fibreis obtained from stems of plants called genus Hibiscus, from Malvaceae family and H. cannibinus species. Kenaf fibre requires only less amount of water for growth as it has growing period of 150 to 180 days with average yield of 1700kg/ha [2]. The Asian countries are mostly exposed to areas with high moisture. In old enperiods, moisture was absorbed by all types of natural fibres, on exposure to humid atmosphere. Itisdue to the hydrophilic character of the fibre and hence it is very responsive to water, resulting i n variation its properties. The moisture polymer chains of composites material consist of micro gaps which holds up the moisture inside it [3]. The other methods are capillary transportation in to the gaps and interfacial flaws between polymer and fibres. The properties of Kenaf fibre reinforced composite shows the highest reduction rate in tensile modulus when immersed in sea water, than fibres dipped in distilled water and in rain water at room temperature [4].Theoretically, the reduction pattern shows better ductile properties due to the constraint in the movementofpolymermolecules,aftertheimmersionprocess. Themobilityofthe deformed polymer molecules are constrained by the reinforcing fibres introduction, and the tensile modulus is also increased but decreases the visco elastic lag between the stress and the strain. For immersed kenaf fibrere in forced composite the reduced value of tensile modulus, may be due to the scratched matrix, decreased bond strength, between matrix and fibre[5].The water molecule when enter sin to the polymer, the plasticization and hydrolysis of the matrix will break the bonding and also chemical combinations. Hence the interfacial bonding strength reduces resulting in a lower tensile modulus[6].Kenaf fibres are cultivated more in areassuchasIndia,Thailand,andBangladesh,partsofAfrica,a ndsoutheastEurope.The fibreis used extensively in paper, coarse cloth, twine and rope. But, to be used as an alternative reinforcement for polymers there is demand for this fibre [7]. Also, kenaf fibre is getting more popular in Malaysia and became the best fibre for applications which included the automobile industries. As Malaysiais