Investigations on the Cutting Quality of Interleaved Flax Fiber with Fly Ash-Reinforced Hybrid Polymer Composite

Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composite has highly received performance characteristics of structural material. This work aims to investigate the mechanical properties and cutting quality on polymer composite designed with a multi-layer sequence of natural flax fiber interleaved with fine fly ash-reinforced vinyl ester composite by using abrasive water jet machining (AWJM). Composite laminates were made with multi-stacking of flax fiber with different fine fly ash particle filler loading (0–15 wt%) by an interleaving approach. Tensile and flexural strength of prepared laminates were measured for various fly ash filler loading conditions. Mechanical properties of laminates were limited by the agglomerated fine fly ash particles which are loading above 10 wt%. Further, enhancement of properties is attributed to the polymer chain termination by fly ash particles leading immobility of polymer link. SEM images of fracture surface revealed types of failure mode are fiber pullout, matrix cracking, and brittle failure of matrix and fiber. Analysis of surface cut quality done by varying the cutting parameters of AWJM by box Behnken design (BBD). The surface quality of the composite severely reduced with fly ash filler loading after a critical 10% loading. An increase in jet pressure intensity reduces the fiber edge pullout and damages.