TENSILE STRENGTH OF EPOXY COMPOSITES REINFORCED WITH FIQUE FIBERS

Environmentally friendly composites, made from natural fibers, are among the most, investigated and applied today. Natural fibers have showed advantages, such as, flexibility and toughness, if compared with synthetic fibers. This work investigates the tensile strength of epoxy composites reinforced with Fique fibers. The Fique fiber was extracted from Fique leaf presents some significant characteristic, but until now only few studies on Fique fiber were performed. Composites reinforced with up to 30% in volume of long, continuous and aligned Fique fibers were tested in an Instron machine at room temperature. The incorporation of Fique fibers increases the tensile strength of the composite. After fracture the specimens were analyzed by a SEM (scanning electron microscope).