Drilling of fiber reinforced composite materials presents a plethora of questions to the engineers and scientists. A number of research endeavors have been made in the recent years to fully characterize the drilling process of fiber reinforced composite materials. The efforts have been made in the direction of optimization of the operating variables and conditions for minimizing the drilling induced damages. This paper presented the delamination analysis of drilled holes in coir fiber-reinforced polyester composites. The results indicated that the delamination factor in coir fiber-reinforced composites is lower comparing with glass fiber reinforced composites.

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Summary: This paper aims at improving the mechanical properties of coir fiber reinforced polyester composites through impregnation of rice husk and boiled egg shell in polyester matrix. The composites sheets were manufactured by varying the fabrication parameters such as fiber length, particulate content and fiber content. The mechanical properties of the fabricated composites were determined as per ASTM standards and the effects of fiber length, particulate content and fiber content on mechanical properties of rice husk and boiled egg shells impregnated coirpolyester composites were studied. Scanning electron microscope analysis was used to characterize the fracture behavior of the composites. The investigation witnessed the improvement in mechanical properties on addition of rice husk particulate in coir fiber reinforced polyester composites. Similarly the addition of boiled egg shell in to the composites has enhanced mouldability of the composites. The SEM investigation evidenced the arrest of crack propagation and voids formation on addition of rice husk and egg shell particulates in polyester matrix. This study confirmed the possibility of using rice husk and boiled egg shell impregnated coir fiber reinforced polyester composites in low load bearing applications.

This work is aimed at determining the possibility of using crab carapace materials as reinforcing fillers in the coir fiber reinforced polyester composite. The sample preparation was carried out with three levels of fiber length (10, 30, & 50 mm), fiber weight content (10, 25, and 40%), and additive weight content (2, 4, and 6%). The composite sheets were prepared by impregnating crab carapace additive obtained from crab shell with coir fiber reinforced polyester composite using compression molding machine. The tensile, flexural, and impact strength of the composites were determined as per ASTM standards and regression models were developed to predict the mechanical behaviors of the composites using statistical technique. The fabrication parameters considered in this investigation has significantly contributed toward the mechanical properties of the composites. The developed regression models were optimized to obtain the maximum values of mechanical properties using single objective genetic algorithm and multiobjective lexicographic method in this investigation. POLYM. COMPOS., 37:844-853, 2016.

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