Obtención y caracterización de materiales compuestos de matriz poliéster reforzados con tejidos y no tejidos de fibra de cabuya mediante infusión al vacío.

Abstract

The present work details the procedure for obtaining and characterizing of polyester-matrix composites reinforced with woven and non-woven cabuya fiber by vacuum infusion and the comparison of the results with those from a past study that used stratification. Specimens were prepared with the dimensions specified in the standards for tensile (ASTM D3093/D3039M - 17), flexure (ASTM D7264/D7264M - 15) and impact (ASTM D5628) tests. Resin preparation admixture ratios and reinforcement configurations were used in the composites to ensure optimum mechanical properties. Once all the specimens were obtained and after curing, they were characterized. Considering the results of the tensile test, it was found that the composite reinforced with nonwoven with a volume fraction of 0.438 presented the best mechanical properties compared to the resin and woven configuration, achieving increases of 179.58% and 146.70% in strength and modulus, respectively. For the flexural test, the 0.423 volume fraction nonwoven composite stood out with increases of 87.65% in strength and 283.02% in modulus. In the impact test, the woven reinforcement configuration with volume fraction of 0.23 and mean failure energy of 0.67 [J], achieved an improvement of 891.14%. Finally, using the vacuum infusion process, it was determined that the absence of air in the system allows the incorporation of a greater amount of reinforcement, thus increasing the volume fraction of the composites and their mechanical properties.