Impact behavior of sugarcane bagasse waste-EVA composites

The impact performance of chopped bagasse-EVA matrix composites is evaluate d and compared with the behavior of bagasse filled PP and PE matrix composi tes and wood-based materials. The volume fraction and size of the chopped b agasse used as filler was varied. The experimental results show that the in corporation of bagasse strongly reduces the deformation capacity of EVA pol ymer. The reduction of the deformation capacity of the composites was also inferred by solid-state NMR relaxation analysis. The impact strength was in dependent of the bagasse size, but varied with the volume fraction. As a fu nction of the volume fraction it was shown that the mechanical performance of bagasse-EVA composites could be tailored to reproduce the behavior of wo od-based particle boards. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserve d.