EFFECT OF CHEMICAL TREATMENT AND FIBER LOADING ON BAUHINIA VAHLII BAST FIBER-REINFORCED ABS COMPOSITES FOR AUTOMOTIVE APPLICATIONS

Now a days, automobile industries are focusing more on producing lightweight materials for vehicle body sections. Because of their lightweight and environmentally benign character, natural fibers have been the subject of extensive research. In the current study, composites were made by reinforcing treated Bauhinia vahlii bast fiber (BV) fibers with Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) thermoplastic polymer to make light-weight automotive parts. Several parameters, including static and dynamic mechanical properties, thermal, and morphological properties, were investigated. To improve compatibility with the ABS matrix, fiber surfaces were treated with various chemicals. Mechanical qualities improved as treated BV fiber loading increased until it reached its optimum (23 wt%), after which they declined. The maximum mechanical values obtained at optimum fiber loading were 68.94 MPa tensile strength, 7.02 GPa young's modulus, 95.27 MPa flexural strength, and 33.25 kJ/m2 impact strength. TGA, DMA, and SEM were employed for analysis. Overall, the findings indicate that reinforcing the ABS matrix with BV filler significantly improves the properties of the created composite materials.