Effect of fiber orientation on mechanical properties of JUCO fiber reinforced epoxy composites

Fiber orientation within composite materials has a great impact on their physical and mechanical properties. This present research studied the impact of fiber orientation on the mechanical strength of chemically treated JUCO fiber-reinforced polymer composites. JUCO is a relatively new, robust fabric composed of a mixture of cotton and jute fiber in an equal weight ratio, where jute yarn is used as weft and cotton thread is used as wrap. It provides the best qualities of both fibers. It is very flexible and becoming increasingly popular because of its environment-friendly behavior. The composites were fabricated with variations in the jute fiber angle, including 0°, 30°, 45°, 60°, and 90°. Mechanical tests such as tensile, flexural, and impact tests were conducted to determine the effect of the fiber orientation on the composite properties under dry and pH 7 conditions. The durability and degradation due to water aging were investigated for around 120 days. The tensile and flexural results were justified by a finite element analysis (FEA). The highest tensile and flexural strengths (57.104 MPa and 84.67 MPa, respectively) were found when the direction of jute yarn in JUCO was at 0° towards the loading direction, while the 90° jute yarn orientation showed the lowest value of 21.042 MPa and 43.43 MPa, respectively.