Abstract
The use of natural fibers has attracted great interest due to their damping properties, low density and moderate strength. The effect of incorporating chopped natural fibers, as disperse-reinforced phase, on the dynamic or the quasi-static elastic modulus of glass fiber (GF) laminates is presented. The experimental set-up allowed the comparison of adding either coir or extra epoxy when preparing hybrid composite materials using the vacuum bag technique. Squares of 32 cm2 plain weave GF pre-impregnated with epoxy resin were used in a stacking sequence [0]4. The volume fraction of the natural fiber was 30%, and 254-mm-long and 25·4-mm-wide samples were cut and tested at vibration conditions in a cantilever beam arrangement. The vibration frequency was measured by an ADXL335 accelerometer at the z axis, perpendicular to the sample test plane; the elastic modulus was estimated by the cantilever model. The results showed that the samples with coir fiber had an increase in the dynamic elastic modulus value of between 150% and 171% with regard to that of the GF samples without fiber; higher volumes of epoxy improved the coir fiber adhesion preventing delamination, although this lowered the dynamic elastic value. The tensile test confirmed that 30% epoxy addition increased the stiffness of glass/coir lowering their dynamic and quasi-static Young’s modulus.
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