Hybridization of Polyester- Fiberglass Woven Mat and Banana Pseudo-Stem Fiber Reinforced Composite for the Production of a Light Weight Car Bumper

In order to improve mechanical properties of reinforced composite materials, one method of yielding mechanical improvement is hybridization. The purpose of this study was to research the structure and materials employed for a light weight car bumper. This paper has an already existing car bumper acting as a master model, which was used to create scale and full size molds for production of hybrid reinforced composite. Hand layup process was employed for production with varying weight percentages of fiberglass/banana pseudo-stem fiber as reinforcement and polyester resin as the matrix. Eighteen (18) scale specimens were produced, and the best results obtained from them were applied to the production of the full-size car bumper. The best results obtained were tensile strength of 34.76 N/mm2, compression strength of 131.37 N/mm2, flexural strength of 86.5 N/mm2, and impact strength of 17.95 KJ/m2 respectively. The same mechanical tests were carried out on the existing car bumper (made of ABS plastic) with the result obtained being tensile strength of 20.71 N/mm2, compression strength of 4.85 N/mm2, flexural strength of 17.73 N/mm2, and impact strength of 31.96 KJ/m2 respectively. The mechanical properties tests were also supplemented with other characterizations: XRF, XRD, TGA, FTIR, SEM, water absorption, and slake durability index to gather information regarding crystal structure, chemical composition, and functional groups present in the hybrid fiber reinforced polymer composite manufactured. Comparing the results, one can observe remarkable enhancement in the mechanical properties of the fabricated car bumper as compared to the existing one. On the strength of the optimization results, 25% synthetic and 5% natural fiber in weight percentage were selected to produce the full-size car bumper. Weight comparison of similar car bumper shows alloy steel weighs 12.2 kg, alloy aluminum weighs 9.57 kg, ABS plastic weighs 6.04 kg, and hybrid weighs 4.09 kg, respectively.