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Volume 13 | Issue 7 | Year 2026 | Article Id. IJME-V13I7P121 | DOI : https://doi.org/10.14445/23488360/IJME-V13I7P121

Performance Analysis of Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymer Composites with Silicon Carbide and Sugarcane Fibre Hybrid Composites

A. Surenderpaul, S. Nallusamy, Panta Srihari Reddy, P. S. Chakraborty

Received Revised Accepted Published
24 Apr 2026 20 Jun 2026 13 Jul 2026 30 Jul 2026

Citation :

A. Surenderpaul, S. Nallusamy, Panta Srihari Reddy, P. S. Chakraborty, "Performance Analysis of Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymer Composites with Silicon Carbide and Sugarcane Fibre Hybrid Composites," International Journal of Mechanical Engineering, vol. 13, no. 7, pp. 266-280, 2026. Crossref, https://doi.org/10.14445/23488360/IJME-V13I7P121

Abstract

The hybrid Fibre Reinforced Polymer (FRP) composites have received widespread interest as future engineering materials because of the combination of natural fibres and ceramic particulates. This study aims to examine the machinability and corrosion properties of sugarcane fibre reinforced Glass Fibre Reinforced Polymer (GFRP) with the addition of Silicon Carbide (SiC) particulates. The three composites’ configurations were prepared by a hand lay-up process, which is epoxy resin as the matrix, 20 wt% sugarcane fibres in GFRP, 15 wt% SiC in GFRP and a hybrid composite of 15 wt% sugarcane fibres and 5 wt% SiC in GFRP. The drilling experiments were performed to analyse the machinability by thrust force and delamination factor, and the process parameters were optimized by using Taguchi L4 orthogonal array and ANOVA. Salt spray corrosion testing was used to evaluate the durability in the environment by assessing moisture resistance and surface degradation. SEM analysis showed uniform distribution of fibres, SiC, and good binding between the fibres and SiC with no significant voids, and Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) confirmed the presence of carbon, oxygen, and silicon elements. The hybrid sugarcane fibre and SiC reinforced GFRP was found to perform better than the other two configurations. The outcomes confirm that this hybrid composite material is a promising lightweight material suitable for structural and semi-structural engineering applications.

Keywords

GFRP, Sugarcane Fibre, Silicon Carbide, Hybrid Composite, Machinability, Delamination, Taguchi, Corrosion.

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