Green Hybrid Composite in Engineering and Non-Engineering Applications

In this chapter, we will address prior research on the characteristics and uses of natural fiber composites in the automotive and aerospace industries. Due to its advantages over current artificial fiber composites, such as their biodegradability, lightweight design, and low cost, natural fiber composites are a preferable replacement. Natural fibers have been employed for the preparation of buildings, baskets, ropes, clothing, and many other things since the dawn of civilization. Natural fibers including jute, kenaf, sisal, hemp, and flax have more recently been utilized in the engineering manufacturing sector. The aerospace and automobile sectors are increasingly using natural fiber composites. To determine the best materials for engineering areas, researchers are now comparing natural fiber composites with synthetic composites. Natural fibers are also attracting increasing attention from researchers because of their biodegradability and affordable manufacture. The possibility for adopting natural fiber composites in place of the materials used in airplane components and panel structures has been evaluated.

This chapter provides an overview of the advancements in natural/synthetic hybrid composites, which have become the researchers’ eye candy. In today’s market, components require exceptional mechanical, thermal, and tribological qualities, which can be accomplished by combining natural and synthetic fibers. Due to their appealing material properties, hybridization fiber-reinforced composites have produced a variety of captivating properties at a low cost of the finished product. They've worked in a variety of industries, including aerospace, automobiles, civil infrastructure, and marine. Therefore, the current discussion is a summary of the advancement of hybrid fiber-based polymer composites, with a focus on their progression.

This study focuses on the tensile properties of Kenaf under Ultraviolet concentration exposure. The specimens consist of Kenaf powder mixture, polypropylene, and Rice husk Ash Silica mixed via roll mill mixer. Then, the specimens in a dog-bone shape were fabricated through an injection moulding process. The specimens were exposed to Ultraviolet (UV) light in a UV machine for a different period. The tensile test was conducted using a Universal Testing Machine (UTM). The result shows that the specimen at longer time exposure presents a weaker strength compared to the specimen with UV in a shorter time.

The present paper reviews the latest development in composites application in the aviation industry, with emphasis in the bio-based and renewable components. With the environmental pressure over a sustainable mobility, the use of lighter and better materials are under worldwide research. The search for those materials goes through the bio-based components in composites. The recent advances in nanotechnology and in the applications for natural fibers can represent a future trend for the industry. Recent approaches such as the bioeconomy and circular economy aim to transition the current linear, economic system in the aviation industry to a more sustainable one, including bio-composites and recycling.

Advanced natural hybrid composite materials were employed and are now being used in structural, mechanical, and high-end industrial applications. Composites offer various significant features, including the ability to resist fatigue, corrosion resistance, and the manufacturing of lightweight components with little compromise to dependability, among others. Natural Composites are a type of composite material that have significant mechanical properties compared to conventional composite materials. The use of composites in the aircraft industry now confronts a research deficit, with the major focus being on determining the future spectrum of use. The usage of appropriate composites so far is responsible for the majority of triumphs in the aviation sector. This chapter highlights the variety of available natural fiber hybrid composites, their general composition and properties, and their possible use in the Aerospace Industry.

From the standpoint of economic and ecological compatibility, the term hybrid composites are becoming increasingly important. These are composite materials that are composed two or more separate green and artificial/synthetic fibers that are reinforced with appropriate polymetric matrices to produce a composite material with qualities that are equivalent to those of manufactured composite materials. In addition, to stay up with new technological developments, it has essential to design materials that are less harmful to the environment and to protect our ecosystem for many years. This notion has prompted people to adopt hybrid composite materials in everyday engineering and non-engineering applications. These composites have several beneficial characteristics, cost, recyclability, and biodegradability, which made them an excellent option for composite polymers in a variety of applications. In this respect, a concerted effort has been adopted in this chapter to provide a summary of diverse green and artificial/synthetic fibers, their categorization, and their usage in numerous engineering applications including aerospace; the chapter begins with a discussion of composite materials and their varied features.

The composite materials have become popular in automotive sector due to the weight reduction capabilities and cost minimization features. Various synthetic/natural fiber materials are used for producing the automotive composite panels. However, the hybrid composites are showing immense potential due to their extreme feasibility for adequate materials preference, strength to weight ratio, lower cost, feasible materials production cost, and functional properties enhancements in terms of thermal, UV-protection, and so on beside the superior mechanical and dimensional stability. Additionally, synergistic effect is also obtained when reinforcing natural and synthetic fiber with polymeric matrix in composite system which may not be achieved when only natural fibers is used. In this chapter, different composites developed from natural/synthetic fiber reinforcement, their manufacturing and characterization protocol, perceived characteristics, and applications would be addressed in detail. Moreover, their economic aspects would also be demonstrated further.

The application of light weight composite materials has been a fast growing trend in the fabrication of intricate and body parts in the automotive industry. Since the automotive industry covers all the modes of land transportation, covering the development of components such as engines and body parts (excluding tires, batteries and fuel), it has focused on developing novel high-safety materials that possess excellent properties. Amongst all transportation mechanisms in the automotive industry, automobile cars are the most affordable and easiest mode of transportation globally and there are several automobile industries across the globe with series of models annually. However, with government regulations on environmental issues, automotive industries have introduced the development and fabrication high biodegradable materials for different automotive parts, hence, the need for hybrid cellulose-glass fiber reinforced materials to compensate for strength, light weight and degradation after use. This review presents the properties and usefulness of hybrid cellulose-glass fiber reinforced materials and its need in the automotive industry.

Composite material is employed in various aerospace, automotive, and civil structure applications. Composite material offers excellent properties such as lightweight, high strength to weight ratios, excellent corrosion resistance and many more, as proved by much research. Since composite is a reliable new material in the aviation and aerospace industry, the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) industry is also looking forward to using this material. It is capable of enhancing the performance of the UAV by reducing the weight, thus increasing the flight time or payload. The extended usage of UAVs in the world nowadays increases the demand for UAV production in many fields such as military, transportation, and logistics, leading to the production of C-Drone in Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia (UTHM), the first giant drone cargo in Malaysia. C-Drone is designed to weigh 400 kg with a payload of 180 kg. The structure of the C-Drone is made of aluminium alloy 6061 T-6. An extensive literature review was conducted to compare and replace the existing material with a lighter material. Therefore, the discussion and material comparison will be reviewed in this manuscript to get a clear direction for the new material of the existing C-Drone. Researchers prove that composite material such as carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) can substitute current material, aluminium alloy, due to its extensive strength to weight ratio.

Hybrid natural/synthetic fibres reinforced composites have become prominent raw material to reduce overall weight of automobile. This happened due to its various in versatile properties such lightweight, low cost, ease in structural development, strength to weight ratio, and high mechanical properties. Due to this factors, many automotive carmakers have been implemented hybrid natural/synthetic reinforced polymer composites in many applications including interior and exterior components. These hybrid composites are developed as it allows enhancement especially in functional requirement to replace the current conventional materials such as steel. Moreover, the hybrid composites fabricated from blending of natural and synthetic fibres in a polymer resins exhibit synergistic result on properties which cannot be achieved from normal composites. Thus, in this article, it will be explained on hybrid natural/synthetic polymer composites as lightweight materials for automotive applications. The development of a many type of hybrid composites in brake lever, antiroll bar, impact attenuator, and crush box are also reviewed.

Natural/synthetic fiber reinforced hybrid composite materials are attractive because of their unique characteristics like, high mechanical and thermal properties, low cost and low specific weight. When compared to single fiber-reinforced materials, hybrid composites possessed better characteristics (i.e., mechanical, thermal). Many engineering fields use hybrid composites and various interior and exterior parts in the automobile industry. This chapter discusses the mechanical and thermal properties of the hybrid natural/synthetic fiber reinforced thermoset and thermoplastic polymer-based composites and their automotive application.

Watercraft, submersibles, offshore structures, and other marine structural components are exposed to relevant environmental challenges. Therefore, materials exhibiting elevated resistance and requiring few or no maintenance for extended periods of time are generally under consideration. To date, composites are employed in all areas of the marine sector and for a variety of components and structures, namely hulls, bearings, propellers, hatch covers, exhausts, topside structures, radomes, sonar domes, railings, vessels of all types, valves and other subsea structures. The advantages of composite materials for marine structures, notably their high specific properties, resistance to degradation in water, and flexible fabrication to produce special shapes, become even more valuable when underwater applications are considered. This chapter presents the various natural and synthetic reinforcements utilized to produce composite materials, the mechanical and thermal properties of synthetic hybrid composites and their different processing techniques to produce the composite materials are discussed in detail.

Composite material research has witnessed ubiquitous contributions to sustainable development. Environmental impact assessment of composite materials has revealed the non-biodegradability and environmental menace causing health hazards. Green hybrid composite materials pose as an effective alternative for alleviating the utility of synthetic composites. The compilation corresponds to green hybrid composite materials and significant parametric characters for increased marine applications in engineering and Non-Engineering arena.

This chapter investigated the tensile behavior of weft-knitted structures for their potential use as composite reinforcement. A factorial design and 3D surface analysis were used to explore the effects of knitting parameters, such as yarn type, stitch density, and loop length, on the tensile strength, strain, and modulus of the knitted fabric. Weft knitted fabrics structures are popular for traditional wear because of their elastic and light structures, gentle smoothness, low production costs, and high productivity. Several parameters affect knitted fabrics behavior, the most important factors that determine the fabric properties are the fiber type, length loop, and float stitch. Many types of natural and synthetic fibers be used according to the usage areas and expected performance characteristics of the knitted fabrics. Therefore, it has great importance to know the effects of fiber type, length loop, and float stitch which have different sources, structures, and properties, on the fabric properties. In this chapter, the performance and behavior of tensile properties in three different knitted fabrics structure made from natural, and synthetic fibers (100% CO, 100% PET, 100% PA, and 67% PET/33% CO) were studied. The results showed that the tensile properties of the weft-knitted structure were highly dependent on the knitting parameters, with the yarn type having the most significant effect on the tensile strength and modulus. The study also revealed that increasing the stitch density and loop length resulted in higher tensile strength and strain, while the tensile modulus remained relatively constant. This research provides valuable insights into the tensile behavior of weft-knitted structures and their potential use as composite reinforcement materials.

Understand the behavior of knitted fabrics to apply them in composites. Composite materials are part of materials engineering in general, however, there is a very attractive area in which textile engineers work intensively called textile-reinforced composite materials (TRCM). Textile reinforcement of knitted structures have active mechanical properties and show potential for reduced manufacturing costs and enhanced processability, with more than adequate, or in some cases improved.