Caracterização experimental de compósitos híbridos de fibras de sisal/fibras de vidro-argamassa de cimento portland.

Abstract

The use of vegetable fibre as reinforcement of cement based matrices has been studied in several parts of the world especially in the undeveloped countries. With the objective of to create a new market to sisal fibre and increase the income of the rural population of the semi-arid region as well as to develop an alternative to asbestos cement products it was established this study on hybrid sisal/glass mortar composites. The influence o f fibre type and arrangement was studied in tensile, compression and flexure. The experimental program was established using factorial design of experiments. The tests were carried out after 28 days of cure in water. The results indicated that the low modulus sisal fibre increases the toughness of the composites whereas the high modulus glass fibre improves its strength. Long and continuous fibres were more efficient than short and discontinuous fibres in improving composite strength and toughness. Hybridisation reduced the strength of the mixes reinforced with glass fibres but increased the strength of the sisal fibre composites. Hybridisation changed the shape of the bending load-deflection curves of the glass fibre composites improving its behaviour at higher deflections.