ABSTRACT
Glass, carbon, Kevlar, and boron fibers are used as reinforcing materials for fiber reinforced plastics (FRP), which are widely accepted as materials for both structural and non-structural applications. However, these materials are resistant to biodegradation and pose environmental problems. Natural fibers from plants such as jute, bamboo, sisal, coir, and pineapple have high strength and can be effectively used for many load-bearing applications. These fibers have special advantage over synthetic fibers in that they are abundantly available from a renewable resource and are biodegradable (de Albuquerque et al., 2000). Also, they have low density, high toughness and acceptable specific strength. Among all natural fibers, jute is more promising because it is relatively inexpensive and commercially available in many forms (Gowda et al., 1999). One of the most easily available forms of jute fabric is the Hessian cloth (Uddin et al., 1997).
