Why are natural fibres failing to deliver on composite performance?

Thomason, J.L. (2009) Why are natural fibres failing to deliver on composite performance? In: 17th International Conference on Composite Materials, ICCM17, 2009-07-27 - 2009-07-31.

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Abstract

The poor performance of natural fibres as composite reinforcements where the focus on chemical aspects has not yet delivered the "holy grail" of glass fibre replacement in volume applications is discussed. An explanation is proposed based on the anisotropic structure of these fibres and its influence the composite interphase.