Under Pressure Processed Polyester Composites with High Amount of Curaua Fibers for Improved Tensile Properties

Abstract

Polymeric composites incorporated with natural fibers are today being used in many applications that include engineering components, for example, in the automobile industry. Among the many natural fibers, the one extracted from the curaua plant was found to be a strong reinforcing material for polymer composites. Attempts have been made to obtain stronger composites reinforced with curaua fibers. In the present work, the tensile properties of polyester matrix composites reinforced with different amounts of curaua fibers were evaluated. Composites prepared under pressure and reinforced with up to 60% in volume of long, continuous and aligned curaua fibers were tensile tested. The results showed a significant increase in the mechanical properties with the amount of curaua fiber. Those properties were found to be significantly higher as compared with other bend-tested curaua fiber composites results.