Per: Belayne Zanini Marchi (Instituto Militar de Engenharia), Pedro Henrique Poubel Mendonça da SIlveira (Instituto Militar de Engenharia), Sergio Neves Monteiro (Instituto Militar de Engenharia)
Abstract:
The production of synthetic materials uses non-renewable forms of energy and is highly polluting, driving the search for new natural or alternative materials that offer properties similar to synthetic fibers. The use of lignocellulosic natural fibers (LNFs) has been analyzed in recent decades and is strongly emerging as an alternative to reinforce or replace synthetic components, and reinforce composite materials for engineering applications. LNFs are generally noteworthy for being biodegradable, non-polluting, having low cultivation costs, being economically more viable, as well as being lighter than synthetic fibers, making them a possible substitute for these components, with similar mechanical properties. In this article, an unknown LNF, Ubim fiber (Geonoma Baculífera), was investigated in epoxy matrix composites reinforced with Ubim fibers in volumetric fractions of 0 to 30% v/v, in order to compare the performance of energy absorbed in the Izod impact test. Statistical techniques, such as analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Tukey's test, were applied, which demonstrated higher energy absorption in the 30% v/v composites when compared to the 10% and 20% v/v fractions..