Fire Resistance Of Natural Fibers

Abstract

Natural fiber is a widely used fiber nowadays in reinforcing composite structure. This is due to the awareness of environmental to the people and the fuel price issue since the synthetic fiber is more expensive than them. Since then, many industry start to substitute synthetic fibers with natural fibers in reinforcing composite structure such as in automotive, building and aerospace. Although the natural fibers have the advantages rather than synthetic fibers, it possesses the characteristic of not really though to fire. Since then, the natural fibers composite is treated to be fire resistance by various way by treating the composite with flame retardant additives and various other ways. Although the natural fiber itself in composition of matrix plays only a small role in fire characteristics of natural fiber reinforced matrix, there still a concern on which natural fiber is the best for holding the fire when it burn, how much the smoke will happen, how toxic is the fiber and how high is the heat release rate when the fiber is burning. To justify and get the data for this, I am doing a research on the fire resistance of natural fiber to justify and conclude that which natural fiber is the best by using 4 various natural fibers and testing 5 specimens for each of them. The entire standard test for the fire test will be carried on throughout the research.