Hybrid composites reinforced with short sisal fibres and micro ceramic particles

• Autor(a) principal: Santos,Francisco Margotti dos
• Data de Publicação: 2017
• Outros Autores: Batista,Fabiano Bianchini, Panzera,Tulio Hallak, Christoforo,André Luis, Rubio,Juan Carlos Campos
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Matéria (Rio de Janeiro. Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1517-70762017000200505
• topic: Hybrid composites; biocomposites; sisal fibres; Portland cement

ABSTRACT Biocomposites reinforced with natural fibres have been extensively investigated as a promising replacing material for synthetic ones, such as the glass fibre reinforced composites. The length of natural fibres depends not only on the plant species, but also on the extraction processing. The heterogeneity of natural fibres, in terms of length, can be considered a problem for some industrial applications. A little amount of work has been conducted towards the use of short natural fibres in composite materials. In order to balance the reduction of strength due to the use of short length fibres, ceramic particles can be incorporated. This paper describes the experimental characterization of hybrid biocomposites consisted of epoxy polymer, short random sisal fibres and Portland cement particles. A full factorial design was performed to investigate the effect of the factors and levels, such as fibre length (4 mm and 8 mm) and Portland cement inclusion (0wt%, 5wt% and 10wt%) on the following properties, flexural modulus and strength (via three-point bending test), damping ratio, apparent porosity and water absorption. The fibre volume fraction was kept constant at 25%. The Design of Experiment (DoE) analysis revealed the “Fibre length” factor does not affect the responses. The interaction “Fibre length and Cement inclusion” affected only the stiffness. Portland cement particles statistically revealed a noticeable contribution to the apparent porosity and water absorption. The presence of cement particles at 5wt% provided not only the increase in the damping ratio response, but also the reduction in the flexural strength and stiffness.