Abstract
The environmental concern is creating pressure for the substitution of energy intensive synthetic materials for natural and sustainable ones. Compared to synthetic fibers, natural fibers have shown advantages in technical aspects such as flexibility and toughness. So there is today a growing worldwide interest in the use of natural fibers. Buriti fiber extracted from the petiole of buriti palm tree (Mauritia flexuosa), presents some significant characteristic, but until now only few studies on buriti fiber were performed. This work aims to study the tensile strength of polyester composites reinforced with buriti fibers. This study was performed in relatively thinner fibers with diameters between 0.1 and 0.4 mm. Those fibers were incorporated into the polyester matrix with volume fraction from 0 to 30%. The fiber diameters were measured by a profile projector. After fracture the specimens were analyzed by scanning electron microscope (SEM). The results showed a sensible improvement in the mechanical properties. The SEM observation revealed the mechanism for this improvement.
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