Comparative mechanical analysis between epoxy composite reinforced with random short cuarua fibers and aligned long curaua fibers

Abstract

Synthetic fibers have been used for many years to attend the demands required by the most technological fields, but their use have been questioned due to the impact of them on the environment. In this way, the natural fibers have received considerable attention because of some their characteristics, besides low cost, they are flexible, viable, renewable and considered abundant substitutes. Thus, this paper is about curaua fibers, which belong to the family Bromeliaceae and it intends to compare the mechanical strength between epoxy composite reinforced with random short curaua fibers and aligned long curaua fibers. The results show that aligned long curaua has higher mechanical strength.