Tilahun, Daniel (PhD))Kebede, Mesfin2018-07-062023-11-182018-07-062023-11-182015-11http://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/12345678/6785Fabrication and Mechanical Property Characterization of Sisal fiber Reinforced Epoxy Composite Material for Automotive Body Application Mesfin Kebede Addis Ababa University, 2015 The present Research work has been carried out to make use of Local Ethiopian Sisal fiber extracted from Ethiopian highlands. The goal of this paper is to fabricate and describe the processing techniques of specimen preparation conducting experiment to obtain and Characterize the Mechanical Property of sisal fiber reinforced epoxy composite Material The sisal fiber were extracted from Ethiopian highland sisal plant by retting and combing process manually after extraction 18% sodium hydroxide was used for further lignin, hemicelluloses and other fiber remnants removal for the improvement of bond & interfacial shear strength of the sisal fiber The tensile, compression and flexural properties of sisal fiber reinforced epoxy composite material were carried out using sisal fiber reinforced epoxy composite samples According to the ASTM standard the specimen is fabricated by using the epoxy resin (system 2000) as a matrix and the hardener(2060) and the sisal fiber as a reinforcement material with the 15%,25% and 35% fiber weight fraction, random oriented chopped fibers by using hand layup fabrication technique the specimen is prepared. 35% treated SFREC was found a higher tensile strength, 25% untreated SFREC was found a higher compressive strength and 15% treated SFREC was found a higher flexural strength furthermore the results of this study indicate that using sisal fibers as reinforcement in polymer matrix could successfully develop a composite material in terms of high strength and rigidity for light weight Automotive body interior panel. Key Words: sisal fiber reinforced epoxy composite, interior panel, Hand layup fabrication technique, tensile. compression and flexural propertiesensisal fiber reinforced epoxy composite; interior panel; Hand layup fabrication technique; tensile; compression and flexural propertiesThesis