In the last decade, natural plant fibers (jute, sisal, coir, banana, hemp, kenaf, flax, etc.) are getting attention from many researchers and academicians to utilize it as an alternate reinforcement of synthetic fiber reinforced polymer composites. These fibers are becoming a great replacement of conventional fibers (such as glass, carbon, and aramid) due to their light weight, low cost, carbon neutrality, fairly good mechanical properties, high specific strength, and biodegradability characteristics. Some chemical treatments are required to enhance the fiber matrix interfacial strength and to minimize the moisture absorption by these fibers which would ultimately improve physico-mechanical properties of these fiber reinforced composites. This paper is a review on mechanical properties of the natural plant fiber reinforced polymer composites and various factors affecting the mechanical performance of it. The tribological behavior of natural fiber reinforced polymer composites and scanning electron microscope analysis are also discussed. Some mathematical models are mentioned which are useful to predict mechanical behavior of the composites. It is found that Halpin–Tsai equation is the most effective equation amongst others in predicting Young’s modulus for short-fiber reinforced composites with minimum error. The applications of natural plant fiber reinforced polymer composites in various engineering fields are discussed.

In the present study, the effect of fiber architecture on mechanical properties of E‐glass fiber reinforced polymer composite has been investigated experimentally. The influence of fiber volume fraction on strength of composite has also been predicted using second order polynomial regression models. The glass fibers were arranged in different architecture like unidirectional continuous, unidirectional discontinuous, short randomly oriented, transversely aligned, and woven for preparation of composites. The tensile and flexural tests were performed as per ASTM D3039 and ASTM D790, respectively. The experimental results of tensile and flexural properties of composites have been discussed. Results predicted by the regression models are in good agreement with experimental results which indicate the goodness of fit and the models are statistically significant.

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The hybrid composite can bedeveloped by utilizing at leasttwo fibrereinforcement in the composite. In the present work, the hybrid composite wasmade by utilizing banana/glass fibrekeeping fibrevolume loading 40%. The banana fibre was treated with 5% NaOH. The tensile test and flexural test were preceded according to ASTM D3039 and ASTM D790respectively.The results indicate that hybrid composite made with 5% NaOH treated banana fibre and glass fibre shows improved mechanical properties than non-treated fibre composite.

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