Tensile and flexural behaviour of sugar cane bagasse waste reinforced EVA matrix composites

The mechanical behaviour of chopped bagasse-EVA matrix composites is evalua ted and compared with the behaviour of more common thermoplastic matrix com posites and wood based materials. The results show that for bagasse particl e sizes ranging from less than 3 mm to 30 mm the tensile and flexural prope rties are independent of the bagasse size. The incorporation of chopped bag asse produces a strong increase in the stiffness of the EVA matrix and it i s shown that the deformability of the composites can be tailored by varying the volume fraction of bagasse, without a big decrease in mechanical stren gth. The results also show that EVA composites could compete with low densi ty wood based materials.