1.

0 INTRODUCTION Environmental awareness of the world in reducing carbon emission and non-naturally decomposed solid wastes has consequently resulted in an increase use of natural biodegradable materials and recyclable polymers for a wide range of engineering applications. Mauritius is a country which is very rich in agricultural and natural fibre. Large part of agricultural waste such as by product of sugar cane is being used as a fuel for the production of electricity. According to Dr K Deepchand, total amount of bagasse generated annually is around 1.8 million tones. Mauritius has got a very large percentage of agricultural and natural fibres such as Vacoas tree, Sugar Cane, Coconut fibre, Bamboo plant, Sisal (Agave sisalana), Banana {Musa sepientum) and Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) and many more. All these natural fibres have excellent physical and mechanical properties and can be utilized more effectively in many engineering fields.

1.1 Applications of Natural Fiber Composites for Replacement of Orthopedic Alloys Mauritius is a developing country, where by each year the number of cars on the road are increasing; according to Road Transport and Road Traffic Accident Statistics, there has been an increase of 2.6% as compared to end of year 2011. Consequently, it is resulting in greater number of road accidents resulting in fatal injuries and even death. The government has to invest a lot of money in terms of orthopedic equipment for internal and external fixation of fractures. And these include expensive materials such as stainless steel, cobalt and titanium and are also compatible with the body and rarely cause an allergic reaction or implant failure. Research has proved that powered material of natural fibre like Sisal, Banana and Roselle and hybrid of Sisal and banana, Roselle and banana, Roselle and sisal can be produced by bio epoxy resin using molding method which has flexural rigidity and hardness required for the fixation of bones. Thereby these natural powered fibres can be use for the development of biocomposite materials based on biopolymers. In future these biopolymers can be externally coated by calcium phosphate and hydroxy apatite (hybrid) composite and can be used for internal fixation and also external fixation on human body for fractured bone. Thus, there is a high probability of producing the biopolymers locally and reduce our imports on orthopedic equipment from abroad. There is also the opportunity to export the powered to foreign counties.

Figure 1.1 Sisal Plant

Figure 1.2 Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa) plant

1.2 Development of composite material for building applications Natural fibres have excellent physical and mechanical properties and can be utilized more effectively in the development of composite materials for various building construction. They have mechanical properties such as light weight, high strength to weight ratio, corrosion resistance which made then an important composite material in civil engineering field. They can be used as bamboo reinforcement column and a reinforcing agent in concrete composite matrix, to built low cost houses as they are abundantly available locally and extracted from renewable resources.

1.2.1 Bamboo and its composites in housing

Figure 1.3 Bamboo plant

Bamboo is a very well known and popular construction material. It is the fastest growing plant and possessed excellent physical and mechanical properties; weight by weight it is stronger than steel. Bamboo need to be treated with Neem Seed Oil at a temperature of 600C for 4 hours to improve water resistance and dimensional stability when used in reinforcement column

Properties of bamboo is given below in table 1.0

Properties Strength

Description Extremely strong natural fibres

Flexibility

Highly flexible, can be bend to curve

Earthquake Lightweight

High capacity of absorption shock wave Extremely light, can be use with simple tool

Cost-effective

Economical and readily available

Durability

Long lasting, when properly harvested and treated

Table 1.0 Properties of bamboo

Due to high increase of steel reinforcement bar for the construction of houses and building, bamboo reinforcement column and beams can be used as a substitute for the construction of houses. In the local context, houses are mainly up to two storey and using bamboo as a reinforcement material will largely reduce the cost of constructing houses.

The same principle of construction is used for the bamboo would normally be used with steel reinforced concrete. High strength cement is used to minimize cracks caused by swelling of bamboo. Figure 1.4 and 1.5 shows bamboo beam and bamboo reinforcement column.

Figure 1.4 Bamboo beams

Figure 1.5 Bamboo reinforcement column

A comparative analysis of convectional concrete and bamboo reinforcement concrete is done and the result is shown below in figure 1.6

Figure 1.6 Comparative analyses of conventional concrete and Bamboo reinforcement Concrete

1.2.2 Fiber Cement slabs Rooms separation of houses and offices are done using ordinary Masonry block which is of 100 mm width. The minimum price for these masonry blocks are Rs 17 per unit (Eastern Stone Crusher). For a typical room separation it required approximately 130 blocks which cost a lot. Instead of investing in using masonry block, natural fibre cement board can be used which is cost effective. This block are made from a mixture of cement, water and sand and fermented fiber, which is fibre from giant grass plants (Sugar cane by-product, coconut fiber) which is of 25 mm thick and can be made to any dimension. There is an adding technique used to increase compaction (Reinhardt and Naaman, 1992; Ramakrishna and Sundararajan 2005; Thiengburanathum et al., 2005). The manufacturing technique is shown in figure 1.7

Figure 1.7 Manufacture Process of Fibre Cement Slab

Figure 1.8 Natural Fibre cement board production The fibre cement board is heavier as compare to timber and properties of the fibre cement board are provided in figure 1.9.

Figure 1.9 Properties of Fibre cement board

Using both the Bamboo reinforcement column and Fibre cement slab, the cost of building houses and offices will be greatly reduced and middle class family in Mauritius can afford to construct houses at affordable cost.

1.3 Use of natural fibres in Glass Fibres

To produce high grade glass fibre it required a lot of money and a high amount of energy, glass fibres are made from silica which melted at 1720C then cooled ambiently, it crystallized and becomes quartz. Glass is produced by altering the temperature and cool down rates. Glass fibres have a long range of application in many engineering field ranging from automobile industry, manufacturing of turbine blades, aviation industry, marine industry and many more. Mauritius has a lot of Vacoas plant abundant and these plants have no importance being used in the fabrication of market bag used by our ancestors for their high strength. The fibres from the leaves can used partly in manufacturing of glass fibres. Hence there will be a reduction of production cost of 10%-30% natural bres from the plant are used in place of glass bres. The used of conventional processing methods means there is no need for new processing equipment needed and made alternative feedstock very simple. Vacoas plant fibres are a good candidate bre to use in products where traditionally glass bres have been used. It is estimated that there are some 2.3 million tones of glass bres being used in various applications around the world, so there are a number of opportunities for natural bres to be used in place of existing glass bres. Natural fibres have many advantages of conventional glass fibres; low density low cost high toughness acceptable specic strength properties good thermal properties low embodied energy reduced tool wear reduced tool wear in the moulding process and have better acoustic properties thereby reducing cabin noise reduced irritation to the skin and respiratory system low energy requirement for processing biodegradable or recyclable Higher stiffness

Due to high avaiablity of Vacoas Plant in the country, maximum used of the fibres from the plant can be made in production different proportion of glass fibres can be made. full used in automobile application in repairing body of cars after accident and in the fabrication of low cost fishing boat for our locals. By making full use of the application of Vacoas Fibre, we can enhance our economic by exporting these fibres abroad.

Figure 1.0 Vacoas Plant

Reference
1. http://orthoinfo.aaos.org/topic.cfm?topic=A00196 2. http://www.gov.mu/portal/goc/cso/ei990/RTAStatistics.pdf 3. Applications of natural fiber composites for replacement of orthopaedic alloys http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/login.jsp?tp=&arnumber=6167942&url=http%3A%2F%2Fi eeexplore.ieee.org%2Fxpls%2Fabs_all.jsp%3Farnumber%3D6167942 4. Natural Fibre Composite and its potential material., Amit Rai et al. New Delhi 5. http://www.sustainablebuild.co.uk/sustainable-buildings-using-bamboo-construction.html 6. http://www.romanconcrete.com/docs/bamboo1966/BambooReinforcedConcreteFeb1966. htm 7. http://www.slideshare.net/tusharchoudhari5/bamboo-construction-final-ppt 8. Sustainable Supply Chain of Construction Products and Materials., A Case Study of Natural - Fiber Cement Wall Products, CMU journal Volume 5(2) 9. http://www.compositesworld.com/articles/the-making-of-glass-fiber 10. http://www.epa.gov/ttnchie1/ap42/ch11/final/c11s13.pdf