Development of A New Class of Natural Fiber Composite Material

Fiber-reinforced polymer composites (FRPC) consists of fibers that act as a reinforcing agent and a matrix phase to bind the fibers together thereby producing new material with combined properties of each of its constituents. It is a well-known fact that human hair is second highest in strength per unit thickness after spider’s web. This makes human hair a suitable substitute for some existing expensive materials by fabrication of a new composite material that uses human hair as one of the reinforcing materials. In the present work we utilize the human hair and the coir fibers in appropriate proportion with polyester resin as a matrix to develop a new natural fiber composite material. All the composite material samples are developed with fiber and resin in the ratio 1:9. The newly developed material is tested for bending strength impact strength and water absorption to investigate its mechanical properties.