Desenvolvimento de compósitos estruturais com fibra natural de ráfia com propriedades termoacústicas

Abstract

The need to reduce the environmental impact caused by the materials used in the industry has led to research on environmentally sustainable materials. The composites with filler as natural fibers are presented as an alternative. This study proposes the use of Raphia natural fiber as filler in structural composite by processes such as laminating, molding and -bonding. Characterization of the pure raphia fiber and the composites resulting of these processes was performed to investigate the morphology, mechanical properties such as bending limit, elastic modulus, shear limit in bonding and the acoustic properties. The fiber compatibility with the polymer matrix was evaluated as well as its thermal decomposition by thermal gravimetric analysis (TGA). Characterization results of Raphia natural fiber indicate that this fiber has interesting, a specifies mass less than 90% wood, thermoacoustics properties and good resistance to flame spread, investigated by the inflammability test. The morphological analysis showed that the pure raphia fiber is composed of a threedimensional arrangement of closed cells, separated by longitudinal layers. This type of arrangement is similar to other systems that have good thermoacoustics roperties. Regarding the compatibility of fiber with polymer matrices, epoxy resins showed good adherence to laminar composites. These resins also showed good results in the preparation of sandwich panels with external offset plates of wood and aluminum with core of raphia natural fiber. The preparation processes of MDF, OSB, MDP were tested and showed consistent with the raphia natural fiber using natural adhesive. The properties evaluation of the studied structural composites, such as elastic odulus, flexural strength, sound absorption and thermal conductivity were superior to those materials used nowadays in many products with thermoacoustic insulation characteristics. The hybrid laminar composite epoxy adhesive, micro glass bead, plasticizer, raffia natural fiber and carbon fiber showed 22.63% better mechanical properties and bulk density 26% less than the offset properties of wood used as flooring.