A study on development of Kapok Fibre-glass Fibre Hybrid composite materials.

It is now known that kapok fibres are useful industrially, which would in turn reinstate the crops contribution to the national economy. The kapok fibres have been used in fabricating a hybrid laminate composite with glass fibres in a polyester matrix. A variety of laminate configurations were subjected to tensile and impact tests. Laminates of kapok-polyester and glass-polyester have also been fabricated and tested. The results show that the ultimate tensile strength of hybrid laminate of kapok-glass increases with kapok fibres volume fraction up to 13 % which is 52.73 MN/m2. Tensile modulus of the hybrid laminate is 856.65 MN/m2 at 13% kapok fibre volume fraction. Also experiments show that the impact strength of the hybrid laminates up to the tested range of the kapok fibre volume fraction of 13 % is 0.116 MJ/m2. However, the properties of random kapok-polyester composites are not uniform. It is recommended that kapok fibre be used in a woven form so as to provide composites with uniform fibre distribution and also improve bonding.