Mechanical Behaviour of Hybrid Composites Developed from Textile Waste

The current study focused on the use of textile industry waste (cotton and jute) and glass fabric for the development of hybrid composites. Composites were fabricated using either a single reinforcement or different fractions of cotton, jute and glass fabric. A good fibre-matrix interface was observed using Scanning Electronic Microscopy (SEM). The mechanical performance of the composites developed was analysed under certain loads. The tensile and flexural properties of the composites developed from waste material was found lower as compared to the glass fiber composites, while hybrid composites had comparable properties. Regression equations were also developed to predict the mechanical properties of the hybrid composites. Dynamic Mechanical Analysis (DMA) results revealed that after some pre-treatment (mercerization and desizing) textile waste materials can be used with virgin material in the reinforcement part of the composite to decrease the cost, but with optimum mechanical properties.