Experimental Investigation on Banana Fiber Reinforced Phenol Formaldehyde Composite for Automotive Application

Abstract

Increasing environmental awareness throughout the world has greatly impacted materials engineering and design. Renewed interest in the utilization of natural materials addresses ecological issues such as recyclability and environmental safety. Currently synthetic fibers like glass, carbon and aramids are widely being used in polymer-based composite because of their high stiffness and strength; However the fibers have serious draw-backs in terms of their bio degradability, initial processing cost, recyclability, energy consumption, machine abrasion, health hazards, etc. Despite these, most significantly, adverse environmental impacts alter the attention from synthetic fibers to natural/renewable fibers. The introduction of natural fibers from annually renewable sources is now popularly used as reinforcement in polymer matrix. The use of banana based natural fiber composite plays important role, due its vast advantage over synthetic fiber. Hence this project would be based on using banana fiber reinforced phenol formaldehyde composite, and testing its application for automobile.