Mechanical behaviours of natural fibre reinforced polymer hybrid composites.

The application of natural fibre reinforced polymer (FRP) composites has been significantly gaining attention by many manufacturing companies, including aerospace, automobile and construction. These wide applications can be attributed to their enhanced mechanical properties. Natural FRP composites have a few drawbacks, which can be traced to the sources and inherent properties of their reinforcements (fibres and fillers) and matrix (binders). One of the most effective manufacturing techniques used to increase the mechanical behaviours of natural FRP composite materials is hybridisation. Common mechanical behaviours of natural FRP hybrid composites include, but are not limited to, tensile, compressive, flexural and impact strength. Majority of these properties are clearly and comprehensively discussed within this current chapter. For a better understanding and simplicity, these properties are subsequently discussed under each of the reported examples of natural FRP hybrid composites. Summarily, it was observed that mechanical properties of most natural FRP hybrid composites, especially tensile, impact and flexural strengths and their moduli were significantly improved than that of their non-hybrid or single FRP counterparts. Though, it depended on the nature of their reinforcements, matrices, fibre volume and orientations/stacking sequences, among other factors.