Natural Fibers And Composites

by Vijay Kumar Thakur, James Njuguna

Overview

Environmental friendly polymer materials from biorenewable resources play an indispensable role in the present day life. During the last few years, natural fibers and their respective composites have attracted considerable interest because of the ecological concerns, energy crisis and depletion of petroleum-derived materials. Natural fibrous materials derived from biorenewable sources are being envisioned as the most promising materials because of their enormous advantages. Natural fibres offer a number of advantages over their synthetic counterparts such as abundant availability, relatively cheap, low in density, environmentally friendly, acceptable strengthening properties, nonabrasiveness, carbon dioxide sequestration, biodegradability etc. which make them an attractive alternate to traditional reinforcement. Natural fibres are often referred to as vegetable fibres extracted from different plants/ trees and are classified into different categories, depending on the part of the plants/ trees they are extracted from. The growth of natural fibrous materials and their composite materials should be welcomed by the research community. This book contains 17 chapters organized into a systematic manner. Each chapter contains distinctive information on a particular natural fiber as well as its composites. It also covers different aspects of natural fibers starting from processing to applications followed by the deep understanding of issues related to the structure-processing-properties relationship in natural fibers reinforced polymer composites. This book contains the latest developments in the area of natural fibers reinforced composites and will become an important reference for any course in the field of natural fibers or composites. This book is targeted for multidisciplinary undergraduate/ postgraduate students, and researchers in the natural fibers, polymer and materials science field. It provides a good overview of natural fibers and polymer composites for beginners, students, scientists, engineers as well as specialists of an area who would like to know more about natural fibrous materials.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781626991927
Publisher:	Arts & Science Academic Publishing
Publication date:	06/30/2014
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	448
File size:	14 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Vijay Kumar Thakur (Ph.D., P.D.F.) is a Staff Scientist in the School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering at Washington State University – U.S.A. He is an Editorial Board Member of several International Journals including Advanced Chemistry Letters, Lignocelluloses, Drug Inventions Today (Elsevier), International Journal of Energy Engineering, Journal of Textile Science & Engineering (U.S.A) to name a few and also member of scientific bodies around the world. His former appointments include as a Research Scientist in Temasek Laboratories/School of Materials Science and Engineering @ Nanyang Technological University SINGAPORE, Visiting Research Fellow in the Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering @ LHU-TAIWAN and Post Doctorate in the Department of Materials Science and Engineering @ Iowa State University –U.S.A. In his academic carrier, he has published more than 100 research articles, patent and conference proceedings in the field of polymers and materials science. He has published seven books and twenty book chapters on the advanced state-of-the-art of polymers/ materials science with numerous publishers. He has extensive expertise in the synthesis of polymers (natural/ synthetic), nano materials, nanocomposites, biocomposites, graft copolymers, high performance capacitors and electrochromic materials.



James Njuguna is a Reader in Composite Materials and Structures at Robert Gordon University, a former Research Councils United Kingdom (RCUK) Fellow and Marie Curie Fellow. He presently leads the Materials and Structures research focus at RGU. James graduated from City University, London and worked in aerospace industry before embarking on an academic career. He also worked at Cranfield University (UK) and Cracow University of Technology (Poland). Dr James Njuguna has a long-standing interest and extensive research experience in composite materials (and nanomaterials) for structural applications primarily focusing on transport lightweight structures and more recently into Oil and Gas sector. The research work has a singular goal to develop multifunctional and lightweight composites (and nanocomposites) with potentially superior properties such as mechanical, thermal, self-healing, impact, energy absorption and durability that can be translated to better dynamic performance of components. He has expertise on two fronts, i.e. (i) quantifying dynamic loading behaviour of structures such as fracture mechanics, impact and crash, and (ii) composites reinforcement to improve dynamic performance of composite structures. He has published widely on composite materials and structures (including nanocomposites) in scientific publications, books, chapters and also technical reports. He is an Editorial Board member of 3 scientific Journal publications.