Enhancing the efficiency of vibrational damping and hardness properties of water hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes) plant fibre-reinforced polymer composites

The bio-based natural fibres are increasingly being used for lightweight structural applications in the automotive and construction industries due to their significant environmental benefits. Water hyacinth fibre composites have been tested previously for mechanical and thermal properties. The vibration, absorption and hardness properties of water hyacinth-reinforced composite samples are tested for the first time in this study. By using the compression moulding technique, a high-performance epoxy polymer matrix is mixed with water hyacinth fibres to produce composite plates with different weight percentages. The 20-mm length of the hyacinth fibre with 20%, 25%, 30% and 35% weight percentage samples is tested in this research. The 20-mm fibre length was calculated by using the critical fibre length formula. The 30% of the hyacinth composite sample hardness property was increased by 14% compared to the other samples. Composites made from water hyacinth plant fibres were capable of dampening vibrations and emitting acoustic disturbances. Based on coincidence frequency analysis and wave number amplitude analysis, 30% water hyacinth fibre-reinforced composites performed the best acoustic performance. The interlinking properties of the composite sample were tested by using the SEM studies.