Abstract
Using natural fibres in civil engineering is the aim of many industrial and academics sectors to overcome the impact of synthetic fibres on environments. One of the potential applications of natural fibres composites is to be implemented in insulation components. Thermal behaviour of polymer composites based on natural fibres is recent ongoing research. In this article, thermal characteristics of sisal fibre reinforced epoxy composites are evaluated for treated and untreated fibres considering different volume fractions of 0–30%. The results revealed that the increase in the fibre volume fraction increased the insulation performance of the composites for both treated and untreated fibres. More than 200% insulation rate was achieved at the volume fraction of 20% of treated sisal fibres. Untreated fibres showed about 400% insulation rate; however, it is not recommended to use untreated fibres from mechanical point of view. The results indicated that there is potential of using the developed composites for insulation purposes.
Highlights
Nowadays, governments in developed countries demand engineering industries to implement ecosystem in their products and look for sustainable materials [1, 2]
Temperature distribution in the sample of 10% untreated sisal fibre reinforced epoxy composites and the reduction in the temperature transfer is given in Figures 2(a) and 2(b), respectively
The main findings of the work as follows: (i) Sisal fibres significantly improved the insulation properties of epoxy composites since the natural fibres have the void generated inside the composites which acted as good insulator
Summary
Governments in developed countries demand engineering industries to implement ecosystem in their products and look for sustainable materials [1, 2]. Material scientist and researchers are exploring the potential of using natural fibres as reinforcement in composites. Natural fibres have the advantages of availability, ease of manufacturing, and being less aggressive to manufacturing tools, sustainable, and biodegradable compared to the synthetic fibres [3,4,5]. In [8, 9], a comprehensive review on the flax fibres and the potential of using natural fibres in various engineering applications has been addressed. One of the recent applications of natural fibre polymeric composites is for energy absorption applications [10]. Natural fibres have been used in different structures showing promising results [11]
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