Published Paper Details:

Lake Tana in Bahir Dar city of Ethiopia has a surplus amount of Papyrus plant, which has a great potential that can be used as natural fiber. Besides this fact, the contribution of papyrus plant on composite material and paper work sector of the city is negligible as compared to other countries. Moreover, due to an immaturity of awareness about this plant and unavailability of experimental tools, the performance and applications of Lake Tana natural fibers are not investigated before. Automotive industry is growing in our country Ethiopia, due to these the industry may need some materials that help to replace steel. This research tries to fill these needs by conducting software analysis and experimental test on impact strength of papyrus/glass fiber hybrid composite. The general objective of this research is to determine the impact strength of Papyrus/glass fiber Polyester hybrid composite. This is achieved by conducting different arrangement of the fibers and conducting experimental tests on the above-mentioned materials. The specific objective of this research includes Extraction of Papyrus fibers from Lake Tana Papyrus, Determination of fiber and matrix contents of the hybrid composite, Fabricating papyrus/fiberglass hybrid composite and conduct the Impact test, and Simulating using FEA software ANSYS to determine equivalent stress of papyrus/fiberglass hybrid composites. The present research is done by varying the percentage content of the natural fiber for papyrus composite and for PGFHC with fixed value of polyester. The other method is by changing the arrangement of the fiber glass and papyrus fibers in unidirectional, woven and random/Chopped/ manner. The Papyrus/Glass fiber hybrid composite is prepared manually by hand lay-up method. The samples were fabricated for each lamina and percentage content. The test pieces are cut according to ASTM standard. Tests are conducted on IZOD impact testing machine for low velocity. In addition to experimental work, samples were analyzed for equivalent stress with ANSYS. The maximum impact strength is observed in unidirectional fiber orientations and minimum values in chopped fiber orientations.