Numerical and experimental study of flexural behaviour in polymer composite materials reinforced with natural fique textiles

This work presents the experimental testing and numerical modelling for the flexural behaviour of polymer composites reinforced with fique fibre (furcraea andina) textiles. We considered two different textile configurations embedded in an epoxy matrix to perform the experimental tests and used finite element analysis (FEA) for the numerical approximation. Bending tests are performed according to ASTM D7264. We determined the equivalent elastic properties for the woven composites, according to the properties of raw materials and the fibre-matrix interface. Next, we applied flexural loads to the numerical models to analyse their mechanical behaviour and compared the numerical results with the experimental data previously obtained. This research aims to contribute to establish a baseline to develop new mechanisms to forecast the mechanical behaviour of composites reinforced with natural textiles, and, in this way, propose applications for structural engineering.