CONICET | Buscador de Institutos y Recursos Humanos

On the World Years of Natural Fibers declared by FAO, their utilization in order to obtain added valuable material is a key factor. Our group is working in the subject since 1994, and recent results on: i) fiber treatment, ii) vacuum infusion technique, iii) dielectric measurement, will be discussed. A fiber treatment consisting on an alkali treatment superimposed to biaxial tensile stress for woven jute fabric/vinylester laminates was done. The influence of the treatment time on the composites mechanical properties was also studied. Resin transfer moulding technique is a processing which permit to obtain a composite material with less content of voids. However their use with natural fibers has some particular characteristics which were analyzed. Untreated and alkali-treated jute fabrics were used and the treatment effect on the mechanical properties of the fiber and composites, as well as on the processing conditions was studied. In order to correlated the dielectric properties to water absorption in natural fiber composites, gravimetric and dielectric measurements were used to monitor distilled water and artificial seawater uptake in vinylester matrix and natural fiber composites