Balaji Alagappan

• Doctor of Engineering
• Professor (Associate) at A. V. C. College of Engineering

This research delves into the fatigue resistance, creep behaviour, and flammability characteristics of epoxy composites toughened with Digitaria ischaemum fibres and finger millet husk biosilica. The main objective of this research study was to extract novel natural fibre and filler from biomass wastes and examine their influence on the load bearin...

In recent years, natural fibers have gained more significance in a variety of civil and industrial applications, such as concrete, beams, and slabs. In addition to producing bamboo fiber reinforced epoxy 16 mm diameter biocomposites rod and biochar filler reinforced epoxy biocomposites, this study used compressive molding. Using the stacking sequen...

This study investigates the feasibility of deploying aloe vera, banana, and corn husk fibers that have been treated with sodium hydroxide (NaOH) as reinforcements in composites. The application of NaOH treatment resulted in a substantial enhancement in the tensile strength of all fibers. Among them, banana fibers exhibited the greatest value, reach...

These days, natural fibers are used extensively as reinforcement in biocomposites because of their valuable characteristics, which include biodegradability, non-toxicity, and lightweight. Bagasse, halfa grass, and coir natural fibers are high-cellulose fibers that are cheap and abundant in India. The fibers from bagasse, halfa grass, and coir were...

The need for biomass to waste plastic oil (WPO) in recent years, as the desire to diversify feedstock and reduce industrial emissions has grown. The technologies for converting biomass to conventional WPO are investigated in this paper. Biomass likes as cow dung and kitchen waste was used as a feed for the anaerobe to generate biogas. This biogas c...

Natural fiber has recently been developed as a reinforcing material for a wide variety of applications in reinforced plastics. It is preferred as a reinforcement material in the production of polymer matrix composites due to its biodegradability, low cost, relatively low density, environmental friendliness, and moderate mechanical properties. In th...

This research focuses on the fabrication of Al6061/B4C/Gr metal matrix composites as well as the mechanical and wear properties analysis. A liquid metallurgy stir casting process was used to cast the Al6061 alloy matrix composites with specific wt.% of B4C and constant wt.% of graphite. In this work, newly developed composites of Gr (particle grain...

Hybrid composites are created by the combination of natural fibers (cotton, bamboo, jute, etc.) and synthetic fibers (glass) reinforced hybrid/natural/synthetic resin matrix composites which have good mechanical properties due to reasons of processability, reusability, renewability, and good biocompatibility compared with synthetic composites. Comp...

Due to increased awareness of environmental security and the use of ecological and green materials in the fabrication of polymer composites, the use of sustainable natural fibers and particles reinforcing material in the fabrication of polymer composites has increased significantly. Because of inadequate interfacial bonding between the fiber and ma...

Biocomposite materials have become increasingly relevant in a range of industrial applications in recent years. Compressive molding was employed in this study to manufacture banana fiber (BF)–reinforced epoxy (E) biocomposites in addition to banana particle (BP)–reinforced epoxy (E) biocomposites. Four distinct composites were created utilizing the...

In this report, natural fiber mats (cotton, bamboo, and jute) and artificial fiber mat (glass) reinforced with hybrid resin matrix (Lannea Coromandelica plant gum and epoxy) and bentonite nanoclay to form hybrid composites are fabricated by hand-lay-up compression technique and then analyzed. The structural morphology of tensile fracture in hybrid...

Agave fiber/polymer matrix composites have recently been used in automotive, aerospace, and construction field, where they will be secure for shape-made applications. Hand lay-up is used to make Agave and Glass fiber-reinforced polyester composites (A/GFRP), Agave fiber-reinforced polyester composites (AFRP), and Glass fiber-reinforced polyester co...

Synthesization of a biopolymer cardanol resin from cashew nut shell liquid (CSNL) using poly condensation as a composite matrix. Locally harvested banana fiber was cut into an average length of 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 mm and then processed with alkali at varying concentrations of 1, 3, 5, 7 & 9 percent NaOH. The aim of the study is to investigate the...

Drilling process plays a vital role in the development of polymer clay nanocomposites. The effects of various parameters, such as tool, feed rate and speed to generate the impact on tangential force, thrust force and delamination factor acting on the material in production are studied during drilling operations in the aerospace and automotive indus...

Hybrid composites are formed by the combination of natural fibers (pineapple, silk, flax etc.) and synthetic fibers (glass) reinforced polymer or hybrid or natural resin matrix composites which have specific mechanical properties due to contents of renewability, recyclability, and biodegradability compared to synthetic fibers. Lannea coromandelica...

Renewability, recyclability and biodegradable contents are similar to glass fibers in natural fiber reinforced polymer composites (NFRP) which have definite mechanical properties. The interface of polymer matrix and natural fibers results the composites to achieve superior properties of products. Researchers have extended their product designs and...

In the current investigation, a biocomposite with lotus stem as natural fiber reinforcement and epoxy resin was fabricated. Parafin wax was used a Phase Change Material (PCM) in the current investigation for thermal energy storage application along with the prepared biocomposite. The lotus steams were collected, dried and prepared for the required...

Researchers have concentrated more on green substitutes for engineering applications in the present century. Immense achievements in green technology have been witnessed especially in the field of material sciences by way of developing the bio composites. This is done as an environmental protection and sustainability. Natural resource materials hav...

The primary aim of this study is to develop a biocomposite by using biopolymer and natural fibers/particles from renewable resources. With the aid of poly-condensation process, the cardanol thermoset biopolymer resin from cashew nut shell liquid (CNSL) was synthesized. The abundantly available, bagasse fiber (20 mm of length) and coconut shell part...

In recent decades, engineering applications involving polymer composites reinforced with natural fibers have increased significantly due to the advantages not only of favorable composite properties but also of fiber durability and environmental friendly nature. In the present work composites reinforced with upto 20 wt% fabric made of banana, a rela...

Natural fibers are considered likely to be used in polymer composite materials as reinforcing agents because of their main advantages such as fine strength and rigidity, low cost, environmentally friendly, degradable and renewable material. A study was conducted to assess the impact of properties of bicomposite made from cardanol resin banana fiber...

High-performance materials from natural resources have gained momentum worldwide. Present study concentrated and carried out to prepare six sets of cardanol-based biocomposites in combination with coconut shell particles (CSP) with an average size of 25, 50 and 75 μm which have been treated and untreated chemically with biopolymer. The particles ha...

The main objective of this investigation was to study the effect of oxygenated additive on the performance of a diesel engine in dual fuel mode with methyl ester of jatropha and fumigated ethanol experimentally. Preparation of methyl ester was from the jatropha curcus, a non edible oil using transesterification process. The experimental study was c...

Recently, polymer composite materials are the most widely used elements in engineering applications. In this work, hybrid polymer composites of epoxy (E) reinforced with sisal (SF), banana (BF), coir (CF) and sisal/banana/coir (SBCF) fibers were fabricated by compression molding process. Five different kinds of laminates were prepared in the follow...

The Banana leaf fibers were chemically treated with 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9% NaOH, further the effect of the same on the fiber properties was analysed. The Fourier Transform Infrared Spectrometry (FTIR) analysis was used to identify the chemical compounds of untreated and NaOH treated fibers. The morphological study on untreated and NaOH treated fibers by...

In this work, the effect of nanoclay addition to glass fiber-reinforced polyester composites is studied. The pristine glass fiber-reinforced polyester composites (i.e., staking sequence, kind of fabric used, etc.) and hybrid nanoclay in varying weight fraction (0, 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 wt%) and glass fiber-reinforced polyester composite is prepared by v...

In recent years, natural fibers are replaced by synthetic fibers as reinforcing agents to fabricate biocomposites. The present study is aimed to blend an abundantly available natural fiber with biopolymer to fabricate green biocomposite material. Four sets of cardanol-based biocomposites were prepared by incorporating bagasse fibers cut length 10 m...

In this work, the sugarcane bagasse fiber was used as a filler to make a new type of biodegradable composite, using the cardanol resin, as a fully biodegradable thermosetting polymer matrix. Biocomposite performance was improved by chemically modified bagasse fiber using alkaline treatment. Two sets of composites were prepared with a fiber length o...

The current work focuses on the thermal behavior of biocomposites based on cardanol formaldehyde resin (CFR) reinforced with untreated and treated coconut shell particles (CSP). CFR has been synthesized by condensing cardanol with formaldehyde in the presence of NH4OH catalyst (ratio of 1:1.6:0.36). Fabricating biocomposites is performed by compres...

Recently the attention in composite materials reinforced with natural fibers has significantly increased due to the new environmental legislation as well as consumer pressure that forced manufacturing industries to search substitutes for the conventional materials, e.g., glass fibers. In this way, the objective of the paper was to evaluate the ther...

A growing worldwide trend for utmost use of natural property through novel processes and products has enhanced studies and examination of renewable eco-friendly materials. In this work, the sugarcane bagasse fiber was used as a source of grasses fibers filler to fabricate a new type of successful biodegradable composite, based on the cardanol, a co...

A growing worldwide trend for utmost use of natural property through novel processes and products has enhanced studies and examination of renewable eco-friendly materials. In this work, the sugarcane bagasse fiber was used as a source of grasses fibers filler to fabricate a new type of successful biodegradable composite, based on the cardanol, a co...

Synthesize of a thermosetting resin based cardanol from cashew nut shell liquid (CSNL) using poly condensation process as composite matrix was carried out. Locally collected sugarcane bagasse fiber was dried in an oven to remove the moisture content. These fibers were then cut into specific average length of 10 mm and 20 mm and made into two differ...

Synthesize of a thermosetting resin based cardanol from cashew nut shell liquid (CSNL) using poly condensation process as composite matrix was carried out. Locally collected sugarcane bagasse fiber was dried in an oven to remove the moisture content. These fibers were then cut into specific average length of 10 mm and 20 mm and made into two differ...

A biocomposite is a material formed by a matrix and a reinforcement of natural fibers like Jute, Coir, Sisal, Pineapple, Ramie, Bamboo, Banana and Bagasse, etc. Such natural fibers composites are low-cost fibers with high specific properties, low density and eco-friendly. The development of advanced biocomposite materials made is increasing worldwi...

Recently, Sugarcane bagasse fiber (SBF) is being used as a reinforcement material in the advancement of reinforced plastics for a variety of engineering applications. Thus, eco-friendly composites reinforced with sugarcane bagasse fiber-polyester (SBP) were prepared using compression molding process. The weight percentage of the fiber reinforcement...