Synthesis and Responsive Study of Tensile and Flexural Properties of Bamboo Filler Based Functionally Graded Composite

Natural fibers/fillers based functionally graded composite materials (FGCMs) established as a second generation of composite material that can simultaneously deliver higher level of performance and maintain the ecological balance. In the present work, bamboo filler reinforced thermoset epoxy based functionally graded composite is developed. The three different composite samples are prepared with varying the number of layers (5, 4 and 4) and density of layers. The density of each layer is varied through an incremental addition of 3 wt% of bamboo fillers from top to bottom side. The composite samples are subjected to tensile test at three different crosshead speed of 5, 50, and 500 (in mm/min) to evaluate the effect of crosshead movement speed and number of layers on strength and stiffness. The flexural properties of the specimen are also investigated at constant crosshead speed of 2.13 mm/min. It is observed that the tensile strength decreases but flexural strength increases with the increase in number of layers.