Numerical Analysis of Hemp Fiber Reinforced Epoxy Composites for Evaluating Micro-Mechanical Characteristics

In the twenty-first century, natural fiber-reinforced composite materials are becoming more and more popular because of their low cost, low density, biodegradability, and eco-friendly nature with high stiffness, and high strength-to-weight ratio. The analysis of mechanical properties by using Finite Element Methods (FEM) became very much interesting to evaluate the strength and stiffness in different directions. This paper deals with the micro-mechanical behaviour of the hemp fiber reinforced epoxy composites by using a finite element approach (FEA) and evaluate the strength and modulus in different directions. Representative volume element (RVE) is used for analysis and eight different fibers’ volume fractions are taken where, elastic constants are analysed for each volume fraction. The Young’s modulus of the developed composites is analysed by FEA in longitudinal and transverse direction and also compared with experimental results. By observing the results, it revealed that when the fiber volume fraction increases, then tensile and shear modular strength increases while the Poisson's ratio decreases.