Compósitos de matriz poliéster com fibras de caroá Neoglaziovia variegata: caracterização mecânica e sorção de água.

Abstract

This research has the objective of developing polymeric composites enhanced with Caroá fibers Neoglaziovia variegata, in order to evaluate its mechanical performance and water sorption. It was used as polymeric matrix an unsaturated polyester resin and Caroá fibers originated from Paraiba state. The composites were made with different fiber contents, cut approximately with 3cm length and molded by compression in a metallic mould in order to evaluate its mechanical properties. The better mechanical composition of the sample was chosen to water sorption test in sample with dimension 20x20mm² and 3cm and 6cm thickness in the temperature of 25°C, 50°C and 70°C. A tri-dimensional transient mathematical modeling was used to predict mass transfer during the water sorption by these composites. Results indicates enhancement of mechanical properties of composites with 24% of mass made of the fibers until a critical volume of 30%. For the impact resistance this increases occurred for all compositions because of the transference of tension for the fibers. The results for elasticity modulus of composite shows that are higher than to the matrix for all fiber contents lower than 45%, which is related with the fiber properties. The water sorption kinetic was related with the area/volume relationship. We can observe that in short period of time, 100 hours, that composites with lower area/volume relationship absorbs water faster. On the order hand, the ones with higher area/volume relationship show more sorption in longer periods of time. The equilibrium moisture content for 30% fiber composite show results of 14.48% in 25°C and 16.52% in 70°C, for 3mm and 6mm thickness respectively. Mathematical models used to obtain numerical solution of water sortion in composites enhanced with Caroá fibers were satisfactory and the finite volume techniques was adequated to discretize the diffusion equation in Cartesian coordinate system for a parallelepiped solids, permitting the analyze of transient diffusive phenomena in this solids.