Hybridization of Fiberglass and Banana Pseudo-Stem Fiber Reinforced Composite for the Production of a Car Bumper

Hybridization is one of the ways to increase the mechanical properties of reinforced composite materials. The intent of this study was to investigate the structure and materials employed for a light weight car bumper. In this paper an existing car bumper was used as a master model which was used to produce the scale size and full size mould for the production of hybrid reinforced composite. The production was carried out by hand layup process using different weight percentage of fiberglass/banana pseudo-stem fiber as reinforcement and polyester resin as matrix. Eighteen (18) specimens of scale size were produced and the optimal results obtained from the production were used to produce the full size car bumper. The mechanical properties like tensile, compression, flexural and impact tests were carried out on the eighteen (18) specimens and the optimal results obtained are tensile strength 34.76N/mm2, compression strength 131.37N/mm2, flexural strength 86.5 N/mm2 and impact strength 17.95KJ/m2 respectively. The same mechanical properties tests were carried out on the existing car bumper (ABS Plastic) and the results obtained are tensile strength 20.71N/mm2, compression strength 4.85 N/mm2, flexural strength 17.73 N/mm2 and impact strength 31.96 KJ/m2 respectively. In addition to mechanical properties tests conducted others characterizations like x-ray fluorescence (XRF), x-ray diffraction (XRD), Thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Water absorption and Slake durability index studies were also employed to obtain information about the crystal structure, chemical composition and functional group present in the hybrid fiber reinforced polymer composite produced. In comparing the results the fabricated car bumper shows significant improvement in mechanical properties than existing one. Therefore, it is based on the optimization results obtained that the weight percentage of 25% of synthetic and 5% of natural fiber was used to produce the full size of the car bumper. Weight comparison of similar car bumper was made and the results shows that alloy steel weight 12.2 kg, alloy aluminium weight 9.57 kg, ABS plastic weight 6.04 kg and hybrid weight 4.09 kg respectively.