With increasing environmental awareness and ecological risk, green composites have gained more and more research attention, as they have the potential to be attractive than the traditional petroleum-based composites which are toxic and nonbiodegradable. Because of their lightweight, friendly processing and acoustic insulation, green composites have been used widely ranging from aerospace sector to household applications. The end-of-life concern with many polymeric composites has also limited their application spectrum. The green composites not only replace the traditional materials such as steel and wood but also challenge certain nonbiodegradable polymer composites. The present research initiative aims at highlighting the issues and challenges in the development and characterization of poly lactic acid-based green composites. A few of these important composites and their mechanical properties (tensile, compressive, flexural, and impact strength) have been reported in this study. The focus is the identification of the possible areas for their novel applications. A study has been conducted to categorize the various types of green composites on the basis of their physical, chemical, and mechanical characteristics.

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In this study, natural fiber reinforced polylactic acid composites have been developed by hot pressing through film-stacking procedure. The reinforcement materials used are nettle, Grewia optiva and sisal fibers in the plain weave form. For comparison purposes, polypropylene-based composites using the same fibers have also been developed. Mechanical properties (tensile, compressive, flexural, and impact properties) of all the developed composites have been evaluated through standard test procedures. It has been found that the polylactic acid based composites have superior mechanical properties and can be a potential substitute for traditional synthetic fiber composites in many application areas. Polylactic acid/sisal composite showed overall the best performance in terms of mechanical behavior. The morphological study of the fractured surface during mechanical testing has been done using scanning electron microscopy, which provides the mechanism of failure of composites during different types of mechanical loadings.

Drilling of fiber reinforced plastic (FRP) composite materials is a field open to a plethora of questions. Drillinginduced damage is a research area that has not been explored exhaustively. The present research endeavor is an effort to correlate drilling-induced damage with drilling parameters. Tool point geometry is considered a major factor that influences drillinginduced damage. Experiments were conducted and drillinginduced damage was quantified using the digital image processing technique. The results also reestablished the cutting speed to feed ratio as an important variable that influences drillinginduced damage. Mathematical models for thrust, torque, and damage are proposed that agree well with the experiments.