Experimental Investigations of Vibration Characteristics of Jute Fibre Polymer Composites

Abstract

Natural fibre reinforced polymer (NFRP) is a renewable, recyclable and biodegradable polymer found in many industrial applications. Few among many naturally available plants which are categorised under natural fibre reinforced polymer such as jute, pineapple, cotton hemp, coir, sisal, banana, bamboo, ramie and kenaf. These plants are found to be rich in lingo cellulosic fibres and hence they are often used as reinforcement for composites. Among these plants, jute is the most commonly available natural fibre in third world countries and recognised as the second most important fibre in the world. It has found its vast applications as a decorative and furnishing material. In the present study, an effort has been made to investigate one of the critical and most influential vibration characteristics of one such natural reinforced polymer, jute fibre polymer composite. In this investigation, the jute fibre has been fabricated with unsaturated polyester resin and maleic anhydride and the experimental trials were conducted for varying percentages of maleic anhydride using Fast Fourier transform. The damping factor for each trial was computed and analysed to retrieve the vibration characteristics of jute fibre polymer.