Improving the Mechanical Properties of Jute Fiber-Mat Reinforced Epoxy Composite Incorporating Water Hyacinth Ash

Natural Fiber Reinforced Epoxy composites are quite popular because of their eco-friendliness, cost-effectiveness, low weight, low density, bio-degradability, efficiency in application with improved mechanical aspects. Adding fillers to them not only can improve their mechanical, chemical and thermal properties but also reduce moisture absorption. In this study, water hyacinths, an environmental waste are used as ash form as a filler with jute fiber reinforced epoxy (JFRE) composite. They grow profoundly in ponds causing pollution which eventually necessitates sustainable utilization to develop sustainable, high-performance JFRE composites. The main goals were to prepare eco-composites incorporating it, test their tensile, flexural, and interlaminar shear and determine the most suitable filler formulation. WHA was prepared from dried water hyacinth plants by controlled combustion at 500 °C, followed by grinding and sieving through a 45 µm mesh. The composites were fabricated using a hand lay-up process with four layers of jute fiber mats and varying WHA loadings (0–2 wt %). The findings show that filler type and concentration have significant impact on mechanical properties of the composites. An optimum loading of 0.5 wt% WHA showed improvement in tensile strength (18%) and flexural strength (12%), while short-beam shear strength increased by about 12 %. Higher filler contents led to property degradation due to agglomeration and reduced interfacial adhesion. This research confirms the effectiveness of agricultural waste as fillers to improve mechanical properties of jute fiber reinforced composites, giving a foundation to the construction of sustainable, high-performance natural fiber composites, to be used in advanced engineering applications.