Journal of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences ISSN: 0974-2115 JCHPS Special Issue 2: February 2017 www.jchps.com Page 311 Mechanical Characterization & TOPSIS Ranking of Glass Fiber Reinforced particulate filled Epoxy based Hybrid Composites Raffi Mohammed 1* , B. Ramgopal Reddy 2 , Sridhar Kakarla 3 , B. Bala Krishna 4 , M Pacha Khan 5 1 Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, Acharya Nagarjuna University College of Engineering & Technology, Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur, India 2 Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, RVR & JC College of Engineering, Guntur 3 Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, MVR College of Engg & Tech, Paritala 4 University College of Engineering, JNT University, Kakinada 5 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Ramachandra College of Engineering, Eluru *Corresponding author: E-Mail: mechhod03@gmail.com, Mobile No: 7993693746 ABSTRACT In this Research article, Epoxy (E) based composites reinforced with E-Glass fiber (G.F) and filled with two different micro fillers saw wood dust(S.W.D) and cattle bone powder(C.B.P) were fabricated by manual hand layup technique with appropriate compositions of raw materials. After fabrication of composites, to investigate the mechanical properties like Tensile Strength (T.S), Tensile Modulus (T.M), Flexural Strength (F.S), Inter Laminar Shear Strength (ILSS), Impact Strength (I.S), Hardness (H) of composites with and without fillers they are cut in to specimens as per ASTM Standards. The tests were conducted on those specimens for mechanical characterization and results were tabulated. The possible reasons for increase/decrease in the mechanical characterization are explained and finally the TOPSIS (Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution) is implemented to measure the proximity to the ideal solution. KEY WORDS- Epoxy (E), E-Glass Fiber (G.F), Saw Wood Dust (S.W.D), Cattle Bone Powder (C.B.P), Mechanical characterization 1. INTRODUCTION Due to several physical limitations like low resistance to impact on loading, low stiffness of polymers, they do not have required mechanical strength for application in various fields. To overcome this problem the reinforcement should be done in to the polymer with high strength fibers (Rufai & Lawal, 2015). The synthetic or manmade fibers like Glass, carbon and Kevlar fibers are provided as reinforcement to get high strength to weight ratio and high strength as compared to conventional materials or mono materials. But due to high initial cost, adverse effect on environment the usage of synthetic fibers is decreasing (Prakash Tudu, 2009). To reduce the usage of synthetic fibers natural fibers should be used in place of synthetic fibers as reinforcement otherwise combination of synthetic and natural fibers are used as reinforcement in polymers to reduce the usage of synthetic fibers. For various industrial applications and fundamental research the interest in usage of natural fiber as reinforcement in polymer composites is rapidly growing (Deepa, 2011). These natural fibers/fillers are biodegradable, recyclable, renewable and cheap (Gulbarga and Burli, 2013; Kasama and Nitinat, 2009; Joshi Drzal, 2004; Roe and Ansell, 1985; Zadorecki and Michell, 1989). Due to high hardness, non-toxic, good acoustic resistance and hard wearing quality saw wood dust is potential material for the development of new composites which are used in automotive industry. In structural applications like door panels, window parts, decking, fencing, outdoor furniture, roofline products, furnishing, packaging etc. for automotive industry and building industries wood filled composites are used (Markarian, 2002; Pritchard, 2004; Joshi, 2004; Rozman, 2000; Gachter and Muller,1990; Canche-Escamilla, Rodriguez-Laviada, Cauich-Cupul, Mendizabal, Puig and Herrera-Franco, 2002; Coutinho, 1997; Balasuriya, 2002; Raj, Kokta, 1989; Netravali and Chabba, 2003). Due to high stiffness and strength, Low density, and low price wood fillers are used in composites (Bledzki, 1998; Dalava, 1985; Park and Balatinecz, 1996; Nogellova, 1998).The tensile strength and tensile modulus were increased when Silane treated wood flour is added to poly propylene (Ichazo, Albano, González, Perera and Candal, 2001). (Agunsoye, 2013) studied the effect of cow bone powder as filler in polyethylene and found that addition of cow bone powder to polyethylene improved the strength and wear properties. (Isiaka, 2013) investigated that the reinforcement of fine cow bone powder in polyester leads to improve the strength and coarse cow bone powder leads to improve the toughness. By keeping this in view the investigation carried out to fabricate an epoxy based hybrid composite reinforced with glass fiber and filled with saw wood dust/cattle bone powder for enhancement of the mechanical properties. TOPSIS (Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to Ideal Solution) is implemented to measure the proximity to the ideal solution as per procedure detailed (Suresh, 2016]. 2. DETAILS OF EXPERIMENT Materials Required: A low viscosity epoxy resin (Araldite GY 257) and Hardener (AD 140) were used as the matrix system and E-Glass Fiber of weight 360gms/m2 is used as reinforcement .Epoxy resin, hardener & E-Glass fibers were supplied by kotson engineering corporation private limited, Guntur. Saw wood dust particles and bone powder of size 70μm were used as fillers. Saw wood dust of Balasha teak wood is collected from Sudheer timber depot, Vuyyuru. Bone powder in the form of raw bone meal is collected from VB industries, Kondapalli. Saw wood dust