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Composites based on fiber are commonly used in high-performance building materials. The composites mostly use petrochemically derived fibers like polyester and e-glass, due to their advantageous material features like high stiffness and strength. All the same, these fibers also have important shortcomings related to energy consumption, recyclability, initial processing expense, resulting health hazards, and sustainability. Increasing environmental awareness and new sustainable building technologies are driving the research, development, and usage of “green” building materials, especially the development of biomaterials.

In this chapter, the natural fiber evaluation approach is applied, which covers a diverse set of criteria. Consequently, the comparative assessment of diverse natural fiber types is applied through the use of an expert decision system approach. The best performing fiber choice is made by comparatively evaluating the materials related to green building. The proposed fiber can be used and applied by green building material manufacturing companies in various countries or locations as a reference when selecting the fiber with the best performance.

The purpose of this study is to understand the behavior of hybrid bio-composites under varied applications.

Fabrication methods and material characterization of various hybrid bio-composites are analyzed by studying the tensile, impact, flexural and hardness of the same. The natural fiber is a manufactured group of assembly of big or short bundles of fiber to produce one or more layers of flat sheets. The natural fiber-reinforced composite materials offer a wide range of properties that are suitable for many engineering-related fields like aerospace, automotive areas. The main characteristics of natural fiber composites are durability, low cost, low weight, high specific strength and equally good mechanical properties.

The tensile properties like tensile strength and tensile modulus of flax/hemp/sisal/Coir/Palmyra fiber-reinforced composites are majorly dependent on the chemical treatment and catalyst usage with fiber. The flexural properties of flax/hemp/sisal/coir/Palmyra are greatly dependent on fiber orientation and fiber length. Impact properties of flax/hemp/sisal/coir/Palmyra are depended on the fiber content, composition and orientation of various fibers.

This study is a review of various research work done on the natural fiber bio-composites exhibiting the factors to be considered for specific load conditions.

The purpose of this paper is to present the review of natural fibre composites as well as a specific type of fibre, i.e., sugar palm fibre and its composites.

The approach of this review paper is to present previous work on natural fibres and their composites. Then a review of several important aspects such as history, origin, botanic description, distribution, application and characterisation of sugar palm tree, and its fibre is presented. Finally a review of properties and characterisation of sugar palm composites is presented.

Findings of this review include the potential application of natural fibres and their composites for engineering application, the use of sugar palm and its fibres, as well as the suitability of sugar palm composites in engineering application after conducting review of their performance and characterisation.

The value of this review is to highlight the potential of natural fibres, natural fibre composites, sugar palm, sugar palm fibres and sugar palm composites as materials for engineering applications.

Gourd fibres (GF) are a natural biodegradable fibre material with excellent mechanical properties and high tensile strength. The use of natural fibres in composite materials has gained popularity in recent years due to their various advantages, including renewability, low cost, low density and biodegradability. Gourd fibre is one such natural fibre that has been identified as a potential reinforcement material for composites. However, it has low surface energy and hydrophobic nature, which makes it difficult to bond with matrix materials such as polyester. To overcome this problem, chemically adapted gourd fibre has been proposed as a solution. Chemical treatment is one of the most widely used methods to improve the properties of natural fibres. This research evaluates the feasibility and effectiveness of incorporating chemically adapted gourd fibre into polyester composites for industrial fabrication. The purpose of this study is to examine the application of chemically modified GF in the production of polyester composite engineering materials.

This work aims to evaluate the effectiveness of chemically adapted gourd fibre in improving the adhesion of gourd fibre with polyester resin in composite fabrication by varying the GF from 5 to 20 wt.%. The study involves the preparation of chemically treated gourd fibre through surface modification using sodium hydroxide (NaOH), permanganate (KMnO₄) and acetic acid (CH₃COOH) coupling agents. The mechanical properties of the modified fibre and composites were investigated. It was then characterized using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) to determine the changes in surface morphology and functional groups.

FTIR characterization showed that NaOH treatment caused cellulose depolymerization and caused a significant increase in the hydroxyl and carboxyl groups, showing improved surface functional groups; KMnO₄ treatment oxidized the fibre surface and caused the formation of surface oxide groups; and acetic acid treatment induced changes that primarily affected the ester and hydroxyl groups. SEM study showed that NaOH treatment changed the surface morphology of the gourd fibre, introduced voids and reduced hydrophilic tendencies. The tensile strength of the modified gourd fibres increased progressively as the concentration of the modification chemicals increased compared to the untreated fibres.

This work presents the designed composite with density, mechanical properties and microstructure, showing remarkable improvements in the engineering properties. An 181.5% improvement in tensile strength and a 56.63% increase in flexural strength were got over that of the unreinforced polyester. The findings from this work will contribute to the understanding of the potential of chemically adapted gourd fibre as a reinforcement material for composites and provide insights into the development of sustainable composite materials.

The study aims to review the literatures on the effect of fiber length on the mechanical response of natural fiber composite will help the researchers to know about the perspective of the various natural fibers in making of composite concerning fiber length. The review summarized the work of the other researchers, thereby unambiguously précised suitability of a specific natural fiber for a matrix in use. Thus, one can identify the use of the same fibers–matrix combination to obtain composites with different properties with the control of fiber/matrix interface.

The review work proposes a new kind of diagrammatic representation that expresses the influence of fiber length. This work has not been explored before in this specific format. The chronology of work may help to select natural fibers for use in composites for a specific matrix.

The length of the fiber perception in terms of “critical” length decides the need for pre-treatment process of natural fiber to improve shear stress at the interface for various matrices.

The current review paper attempts to shed light on the association between the fiber length of natural fiber and the mechanical response of natural fiber composite. Moreover, it probes the concepts of critical fiber length as a persuadable factor.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a comparative study between different structures composed of fiber-reinforced composite materials. Plates, cylinders and cylindrical and spherical shell panels in symmetric 0°/90°/0° and antisymmetric 0°/90°/0°/90° configurations are analyzed considering carbon fiber, glass fiber and linoleum fiber reinforcements.

A free vibration analysis is proposed for different materials, lamination sequences, vibration modes, half-wave numbers and thickness ratios. Such an analysis is conducted by means of an exact three-dimensional shell model which is valid for simply supported structures and cross-ply laminations. The employed model is based on a layer-wise approach and on three-dimensional shell equilibrium equations written in general orthogonal curvilinear coordinates.

The proposed study confirms the well-known superiority of the carbon fiber-reinforced composites. Linoleum fiber-reinforced composites prove to be comparable to glass fiber-reinforced composites in the case of free vibration analysis. Therefore, similar frequencies are obtained for all the geometries, thickness ratios, laminations sequences, vibration modes and a large spectrum of half-wave numbers. This partial conclusion needs further confirmations via static, buckling and fatigue analyses.

An exact three-dimensional shell model has been used to compare several geometries embedding carbon fiber composites and natural fiber composites.

The purpose of this paper is to explore and investigate the mechanical as well as bacterial characteristics of chemically treated waste natural fiber inserted three-dimensional structures (NFi3DS) produced with fused filament deposition (FFD) for biomedical applications.

In this work, a novel approach has been used for developing the customized porous structures particularly for scaffold applications. Initially, raw animal fibers were collected, and thereafter, the chemical treatment has been performed for making their wise utility in biomedical structures. For this purpose, silk fiber and sheep wool fibers were used as laminations, whereas polylactic acid was used as matrix material. A low-cost desktop time additive manufacturing setup was used for making the customized and porous parts by considering type of fiber, number of laminates, infill density and raster angle as input parameters.

The results obtained after using design of experimental technique highlighted that output characteristics (such as dimensional accuracy, hardness, three-point bending strength and bacterial test) are influenced by input parameters, as reported in the obtained signal/noise plots and analysis of variance. Optimum level of input parameters has also been found through Taguchi L9 orthogonal array, for single parametric optimization, and teaching learning-based algorithm and particle swarm optimization, for multiple parametric optimization. Overall, the results of the studies supported the use of embedded structures for scaffold-based biomedical applications.

Presently, NFi3DS were produced by using the hand-lay-based manual approach that affected the uniform insert’s distribution and thickness. It is advised to use the automatic fiber placement system, synced with a three-dimensional printer, to achieve greater geometrical precision.

As both natural fibers and polymer matrix used in this work are well established for their biological properties, hence the methodology explored in this work will help the practitioners/academicians in developing highly compatible scaffold structures.

The present work defines a new practice where the researchers can use natural fibers to reduce the cost associated with fabrication of customized scaffold prints.

The development of natural fiber embedded FFD-based structures is not yet explored for their feasibility in biomedical applications.

In recent years, oil spill pollution has become one of the main problems of environmental pollution. Recovering oil by means of sorbent materials is a very promising approach and has acquired more attention due to its high cleanup efficiency. Compared to synthetic fibrous sorbents, the use of natural fibers in oil spill cleanups offers several advantages including environmental friendliness, degradable features and cost-effectiveness. Therefore, studies on developing sorbents using natural fibers for oil spill cleanup applications have become a research hotspot.

This paper reviews the work conducted by several researchers in developing oil sorbents from fibers such as cattail, nettle, cotton, milkweed, kapok, populous seed fiber and Metaplexis japonica fiber. Some featured critical parameters influencing the oil sorption capacity of fibrous substrates are discussed. Oil sorption capacity and reusability performance of various fibers are also discussed. Recent developments in oil spill cleanups and test methods for oil sorbents are briefly covered.

The main parameters influencing the oil sorption capacity of sorbents are fiber morphological structure, fiber density (g/cc), wax (%), hollowness (%) and water contact angle. An extensive literature review showed that oil sorption capacity is highest for Metaplexis japonica fiber followed by populous seed fiber, kapok, milkweed, cotton, nettle and cattail fiber. After use, the sorbents can be buried under soil or they can also be burned so that they can be vanished from the surface without causing environmental-related issues.

This review paper aims to summarize research studies conducted related to various natural fibers for oil spill cleanups, fiber structural characteristics influencing oil sorption and recent developments in oil spill cleanups. This work will inspire future researchers with various knowledge backgrounds, particularly, from a sustainability perspective.

The purpose of this study is to explore the potential of Cordyline Australis fibers as an alternate raw material for textile.

The water retting method was used to extract the fiber. Cordyline Australis fibers were characterized in terms of the morphology of fibers (fiber cross-sectional and longitudinal), fiber chemical functional groups, tensile strength and elongation, fineness, fiber length, moisture regain and friction coefficient.

Cordyline Australis fiber strands consist of several individual fibers. At the longitudinal section, the fiber cells appeared as long cylindrical tubes with a rough surface. The cross-section of the Cordyline Australis fibers was irregular but some were oval. The key components in the fibers were cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin. The tensile strength of the fiber per bundle was 2.5 gf/den. The elongation of fibers was 13.15%. The fineness of fiber was 8.35 Tex. The average length of the fibers was 54.72 cm. Moisture Regain for fiber was 8.59%. The friction coefficient of fibers was 0.16. The properties of the fiber showed that the Cordyline Australis fiber has the potential to be produced into yarn.

To the best of the author's knowledge, there is no scientific article focused on the Cordyline Australis fibers. Natural fibers from the leaves of the Cordyline Australis plant could be used as an alternate material for textile.

This study aims at extracting and characterizing palm leaf fibers from Elaeis guineensis species of palm trees found in Ethiopia.

The fibers were extracted using three methods: manually, through water retting and chemically with sodium hydroxide. Physical parameters of the extracted fibers were evaluated, including tensile strength, fiber fineness, moisture content, degradation point and functional groups. Its cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin contents were also analyzed.

The results showed that the palm leaf fibers have a comparable fiber strength (170-450 MPa), elongation (0.95-1.25 per cent), fiber length (230-500 mm) and moisture regain (8-10 per cent) to jute, sisal and flax and thus can be used for technical textile application.

The fibers extracted using the water retting method had better properties than the other extraction methods. Its fiber length of 307 mm, cellulose content of 58 per cent, strength of 439 MPa and elongation of 1.24 per cent were the highest for all the extracted fibers. When compared with other fibers, palm leaf fiber properties such as tensile strength (439 MPa), elongation (1.24 per cent), moisture content (7.9-10.4 per cent and degradation point (360-380°C) were consistent with those of jute, sisal and ramie fibers. Hence, palm leaf fibers can be used for technical textile applications such as composite reinforcement.