Mechanical, Wear, and Flammability Behavior of Sisal Fiber and Nanosilica Reinforced Bio Oil-toughened Vinyl Ester Composite

Natural means of product are now gaining attention in recent decades, especially due to their less dense, eco-friendly, cost effective nature. Research are also done on polymer composite material by reinforcing natural sourced fiber filler and bio toughened matrix, to produce bio based compounds without compromising the strength features. The present study investigates the mechanical, wear, flammability properties of naturally derived and surface modified sisal fiber, nanosilica and rice bran oil toughened vinyl ester composite. The composite are developed by manual layup method and test is carried out by ASTM standard. The tensile behavior of the composite VO, by toughening of 15 vol.% of rice bran oil into matrix shows, maximum tensile strength of 44.60 MPa, and it is 100.53% better than plain vinyl ester composite V, while along silane modified fiber (30 vol.%) exhibits better flexural strength of 113.37 MPa (34.8%). In converse, excessive nanosilica content led to a degradation effect on tensile and flexural strength, highlighting the importance of optimal filler loading and dispersion in hybrid composites. Whereas, the impact and hardness strength of composite VS2 (30 vol.% sisal fiber, 15 vol.% bio oil, 10 vol.% nanosilica) exhibited the 3.64 J and hardness strength 77.5 respectively, which provides the better performance in toughness and surface resistance features on the composite. Similarly, the nanosilica-induced surface lubrication and sisal fiber reinforcement on the composite, VS2 had the best wear resistance, with wear loss of 0.013 g and the lowest COF (0.120). When compared to the highly flammable plain vinyl ester (V), all modified composites demonstrated notable improvements in fire resistance; however, VO demonstrated the best flame retardancy with a propagation speed of 13.63 mm/min (V-0 rating, no dripping, and reduced flame speed). Thus, these types of natural fiber, filler, and bio oil reinforcement yield noteworthy outcomes and can be utilized in a variety of fields, including the automobile, infrastructure, and domestic sectors.