Fabrication and mechanical characterization of sisal fiber, banana fiber and bamboo strip reinforced hybrid composite

This study investigates the effect of sisal fiber content on the mechanical properties of composite materials, specifically focusing on tensile strength, flexural strength, and impact strength. The results show a clear trend: as the sisal fiber content increased, the tensile strength of the composites decreased. Sample 1, which had the least amount of sisal fiber, achieved the highest tensile strength of 39.616 MPa, while Sample 2 and Sample 3 exhibited tensile strengths of 28.763 MPa and 20.965 MPa, respectively. A similar decline in flexural strength was observed, with Sample 1 showing the highest flexural strength of 69.933 MPa, and Sample 2 and Sample 3 showing 62.259 MPa and 47.707 MPa, respectively. In contrast, the impact strength increased with higher sisal fiber content. Sample 1 exhibited an impact strength of 101.7372 KJ/m², which increased to 124.5539 KJ/m² in Sample 2 and 128.3414 KJ/m² in Sample 3. The findings highlight a trade-off between strength and toughness: while increasing sisal fiber content improves impact strength, it significantly reduces tensile and flexural strengths. This suggests that optimizing the fiber content is essential depending on the intended application. For applications requiring impact resistance, higher fiber content is preferred, while for those needing high tensile and flexural strength, lower fiber content is more suitable.