Wettability and Moisture Analysis on Natural Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Resin Hybrid Composites

A study on wettability and moisture absorption behavior of various natural fiber hybrid composites with varying weight fractions are presented in this paper. Banana, pineapple, hemp, and flax fibers were used as reinforcement and epoxy resin along with hardener used as matrix material. Composites were fabricated on the basis of the rule of hybridization mixtures. The hand lay-up technique was used for the fabrication of composites and a total of five different composites were fabricated by varying the weight fraction of the composite for comparison purposes. The wettability test was done by using the contact angle measurement technique to find out the wettability of composite surface by liquid droplet on it. Moisture analysis was done by calculating the gain percentage of water was measured on a periodic basis at an interval of 24 hours and the results were observed for comparison purposes.