Fabrication & Characterization of Hybrid Glass -Maize Stalk Fibers Reinforced Epoxy Composite for Bone Fracture Plate Application: An Experimental and Numerical Approach
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Date
2024-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Femur bone fractures are a common injury resulting from high-energy trauma caused by traffic accidents and falls from heights. The conventional use of bone fixation plates presents a challenge due to their stiffness mismatch compared to human cortical bone, leading to the stress shielding effect. To address this issue, a hybrid fiber-based polymer composite with mechanical properties closest to human bone can be used. This research aims to fabricate and characterize the mechanical and physical properties of a new glass-maize stalk fiber reinforced epoxy hybrid composite for femur bone fracture plates applications. The hand-layup technique, coupled with light compression molding, was employed to create a composite material using 3 mm fiber lengths and a fiber-to-matrix weight ratio of 30% and 70%, respectively. Various mechanical and physical tests were carried out on specimens prepared in accordance with ASTM standards to assess the performance of the composite. The composite with a composition of 25% glass fiber with 5% maize-stalk fiber reinforced epoxy showed the promising results for femur bone plate application, with a tensile strength of 166.64MPa, compressive strength of 265.08MPa, flexural strength of 275.64MPa, impact strength of 16.67J, and micro hardness of 42.57HV. The physical properties including water absorption and density are determined for the selected composite and found to be a water absorption of 1.93% and density of 1.4235g/cm3 and these properties make the hybrid composite suitable for the intended application. Finite element analysis is carried out to validate the experimental findings using ANSYS 2021 R2 commercial software. The stress shielding effect has been reduced by using the hybrid composite, with a von Mises stress of 49.166MPa and total deformation of 4.4329mm. The results obtained from both experiments and FEA show that the glass fiber-maize stalk reinforced epoxy hybrid composite is a suitable alternative for bone plates, as it reduces the stress shielding effect associated with the use of metallic plates. Furthermore, the use of agricultural residue like maize stalk as a reinforcing material contributes to environmental sustainability.
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Keywords
Mechanical characteristics, FEA, Maize-stalk fiber, Femur bone, Hybrid composite, and Bone plate