Moisture absorption behavior and its effect on the mechanical properties of jute‐reinforced epoxy composite

With the growing economic competition and the ecological pressure, the past decade has seen a renewed interest in developing more efficient reinforcements along with overall production cost. In some industrial applications, natural fiber composites fulfill small requirements for making the product to be economical due to their several advantages such as low density, greater deformability, lower abrasiveness, and cost. In the present work, composites are prepared with epoxy as a resin and jute as reinforcement by hand lay‐up technique. Moisture absorption characteristics when exposed to saline water, mineral water, sub‐zero temperature conditions, and also effect of moisture on depreciation in strength (tensile strength and flexural strength) and of different layers (one, two, three layers) of composites are studied experimentally. Specimen preparation and testing were carried out as per ASTM standards. It is found that the jute‐reinforced epoxy composite give encouraging results when compared with the pure epoxy composites. The less effect in strength is observed after exposure to mineral water and sub‐zero temperature condition. The morphologies of the composites are also studied by scanning electron microscope. POLYM. COMPOS., 38:516–522, 2017. © 2015 Society of Plastics Engineers