Characterization of a Material Based on Short Natural Fique Fibers

Abstract

Fique is a biodegradable natural fiber derived from the Colombian Agavaceae family, originating in tropical America and traditionally used for the manufacture of packaging and cordages. Today, however, new uses are being developed. To meet the need for new good-quality, sustainable, low-cost construction materials for social housing, construction materials have been produced that combine different kinds of natural fibers, including fique, to improve their strength and physical properties. To assess these potential new construction materials made with fique fiber, we have characterized samples of different grammages and thicknesses manufactured using short fique fibers extracted from long fibers. We have measured the sound absorption coefficient at normal incidence in an impedance tube, air flow resistivity, and thermal conductivity as a function of grammage.

Use of Vegetable Fibers for PRB to Remove Heavy Metals from Contaminated Aquifers—Comparisons among Cabuya Fibers, Broom Fibers and ZVI

“…and it grows easily in the wild or can be cultivated in valleys and on hillsides. This plant has a small but strong stalk and sword-shaped rigid leaves with thorns at the edges [ 60 , 61 ]. Substantial changes in the diameter of the fiber can be detected from plant to plant and along the same fiber, but generally these do not exceed 400 μm [ 60 , 61 , 62 ].…”

“…This plant has a small but strong stalk and sword-shaped rigid leaves with thorns at the edges [ 60 , 61 ]. Substantial changes in the diameter of the fiber can be detected from plant to plant and along the same fiber, but generally these do not exceed 400 μm [ 60 , 61 , 62 ]. The cellulose content of the fibers can vary between 18.7% and 70%, while that of the lignin is generally variable between 6.81% and 15.5% [ 62 , 63 ].…”

Removal of Heavy Metals from Contamined Aquifers by Vegetable Fibers. Comparisons among Cabuya Fibers, Broom Fibers and ZVI

“…This paper makes reference only to vegetable fibers, which can be classified in the following five groups: Bast, Leaf, Seed, Fruit and Grass and reed fibers [34]. These fibers are used extensively, often mixed with other substances (epoxy, cement, thermoplastic matrices, etc ...), in many sectors of the economy for their specific properties, such as easy availability, low cost, high mechanical strength, biodegradability, etc ... [35][36][37][38][39]. Furthermore, these vegetable fibers are used more and more frequently for the treatment of water contaminated by pollutants, including heavy metals [8,30,32,33,40,41].…”

“…These fibers are very durable and have a tensile strength varying between 43 MPa and 571 MPa. Cabuya fibers are mainly employed for industrial uses; specifically, in addition to traditional uses (buildings, components, etc ...), these fibers are used profitably for thermal and acoustic insulation and as reactive substances for the adsorption of pollutants in the treatment of contaminated water [34,39,[48][49][50].…”

Sound Absorption Properties of Unbleached Cellulose Loose-Fill Insulation Material

“…Empirical models have been subsequently applied to characterize polyurethane foams (Dunn and Davern 1986), plastic open-cell foams (Wu 1988), textile fibers (Garai and Pompoli 2005), different vegetal fibers (Ramis et al 2010;Fatima and Mohanty 2011;Oldham et al 2011;Navacerrada et al 2014), and recycled polyester fibers (del Rey et al 2011). In fact, the European standard on building acoustics (EN 12354 2003) recommends using the regression coefficients of Delany and Bazley (1970) for the prediction of the sound absorption of materials composed of fibers and the results of Dunn and Davern (1986) for foam materials.…”