Mechanical Model for Vegetal Fibers-Reinforced Composite Materials

Composite materials reinforced with vegetal fibers appear to be a good alternative for engineering applications. The objective of this work was to develop a 2D mechanical model for the vegetal fibers-reinforced composite materials. This approach gives more possibilities for combining the two different materials without any more experimental tests for each kind of composition and position of the fibers. It's a two-dimensional theory taking into account the one-dimensional behavior of the fibers, but considered, geometrically, as a two-dimensional system. The vegetal fibers are considered as simple cords and they are represented by an equivalent geometrical surface having the mechanical characteristics, including bending property and the coupling between twist-extension. The analytical solutions can be used to determine the optimization parameters leading to maximize the stress in the vegetal fibers and minimize it in the matrix.