One of the most important agricultural products in the northeast of Portugal is sweet chestnuts. In this region only, several tons of this product are produced every year. Sweet chestnuts are enclosed in a hedgehog covered with a large number of short and fine spines and containing more than one nut. This hedgehog, with long spines, does not have any commercial value, and they are considered an agricultural waste that is left in the fields to be incorporated into the soil. In this work, the authors propose to study the influence of some factors in the short-fiber non-woven chestnut hedgehog spine-reinforced polyester composite performance. For this purpose, the tensile properties of chestnut spines were determined by implementing a design of experiments (DOE) approach developed by Taguchi. Thus, the factors that will be controlled are the fiber dispersion which is defined by fiber/matrix mass ratio or weight fraction, the interfacial strength that could be improved using an alkali-silane treatment and, finally, the moisture level in the fibers. For each factor, three levels were used, an L 9 orthogonal array of experiments was implemented to evaluate tensile and flexural properties. These properties were determined based on results of 54 tests, and the maximum mean values for tensile and flexural strength were 23.5 MPa and 33.6 MPa, respectively. The most influential factor for maximizing the tensile strength was the volume fraction of fiber with a contribution of 30%, and most influential factor for maximizing the flexural strength was the moisture level with a contribution of 65%. The determined mean value of tensile strength of the spines was 148 MPa. 摘要 葡萄牙东北部最重要的农产品之一是甜栗子。这个地区每年只生产几吨这 种产品. 甜栗子被包围在一只刺猬里,刺猬身上长满了许多又短又细的 刺,里面有不止一个坚果. 这种长着长刺的刺猬没有任何商业价值,它们 被认为是一种农业废弃物,留在地里,以便并入土壤. 本文研究了短纤维 无纺栗子刺猬刺增强聚酯复合材料性能的影响因素. 为此,采用田口的实 验设计方法测定了板栗尖晶石的拉伸性能。因此,将要控制的因素是由纤 维/基体质量比或重量分数定义的纤维分散性、使用碱-硅烷处理可提高的 界面强度以及纤维中的水分水平.对于每一个因素,使用三个水平,实施L9 正交试验阵列来评估拉伸和弯曲性能. 这些性能是根据54个试验的结果确 定的,拉伸强度和弯曲强度的最大平均值分别为 23.5 MPa 和 33.6 MPa. 最 大化拉伸强度的最有影响的因素是纤维的体积分数,贡献率为30%,最大 抗弯强度的影响因素是湿度水平,贡献率为65%。测定的尖晶石抗拉强度 平均值为148mpa.