Articles
  • Synergistic effects and optimization of surface-modified borassus and madar fibers in hybrid epoxy composites with lotus seed powder filler

  • Shruti Gomkalea, Abdulrahman Khamajb, Abdulelah M. Alic, Rajasekaran Saminathand, P Satishkumare,*, M. Naga Swapna Srif, Deepak Guptag and Vijayakumar Sivasundarh

  • aAssistant professor, Department of Applied Chemistry, Yeshwantrao Chavan College of Engineering, Nagpur, Maharashtra, India
    bIndustrial Engineering Department, College of Engineering and Computer Science, Jazan University, Saudi Arabia
    cIndustrial Engineering Department, College of Engineering and Computer Science, Jazan University, Saudi Arabia
    dMechanical Engineering Department, College of Engineering and Computer Science, Jazan University, Saudi Arabia
    eDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Rathinam Technical Campus, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India
    fDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Prasad V Potluri Siddhartha Institute of Technology, Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh, India
    gDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Graphic Era Hill University, Dehradun-248002, Uttarakhand, India
    hDepartment of Mechanical Engineering, Saveetha School of Engineering, SIMATS, Chennai 602105, Tamil Nadu, India

  • This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

The aim of this work is to enhance the mechanical properties of hybrid epoxy composites reinforced with Borassus fruit fibers (BFF) and Madar fibers (MF), fabricated by conventional hand layup technique. Composite formulations were created by adjusting fiber reinforcement levels (0–12 wt%) and integrating lotus seed shell powder (LSSP) as a filler (2–4 wt%), while adding benzoyl chloride surface treatment (BT) (0–6 wt%) enhanced the fiber–matrix interfacial bonding. This study examines the FTIR spectra of MF, BFF, and LSP subjected to 0%, 3%, and 6% BT. A comprehensive multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) technique was utilized to determine the optimal composite structure, incorporating the CRITIC approach for objective weighting of mechanical performance characteristics with two sophisticated ranking algorithms — CODAS and MARCOS. The optimization results showed that, the composite consists of 12 wt% BFF, 12 wt% MF, 3 wt% BT, and 2 wt% LSSP, exhibited improved mechanical properties. Specifically, the composite achieved a tensile strength (TS) of 38.6 MPa, a flexural strength (FS) of 63.25 MPa, and an impact strength (IS) of 69.63 J/m. The enhanced fiber-matrix bonding resulting from surface modification and the synergistic effects of hybridization are the reasons for the improved performance. In addition, a sensitivity analysis was performed by altering the weights of the testing composite to determine their impact on the overall ranking. The hybrid optimization and experimentation indicate that ninth composites have superior mechanical properties relative to other fabricated composites.


Keywords: Mechanical properties, Flexural strength, Lotus seed shell powder, Optimization, CODAS, MARCOS.

This Article

  • 2025; 26(6): 1009-1023

    Published on Dec 31, 2025

  • 10.36410/jcpr.2025.26.6.1009
  • Received on Jul 23, 2025
  • Revised on Oct 28, 2025
  • Accepted on Nov 6, 2025

Correspondence to

  • P Satishkumar

  • Department of Mechanical Engineering, Rathinam Technical Campus, Coimbatore, Tamilnadu, India
    Tel : +91 9791927002

  • E-mail: sp.sathishkumar10@gmail.com