ABSTRACT
Recently, new and more stringent environmental regulations coupled with the depletion of oil resources have evoked a concern among researchers to find a substitute for synthetic fibers in polymeric composites (Yousif and El-Tayeb, 2008a). As an alternative, natural fibers are becoming an attractive alternative due to their advantages over the synthetics such as recyclability, biodegradability, renewability, low cost, light weight, high specific mechanical properties, and low density (Corbiere et al., 2001; Gowda et al., 1999; Joshi et al., 2004; Yousif and El-Tayeb, 2008a; Wambua et al., 2003). Nowadays, applications of natural fiber reinforced polymeric composites can be found in housing construction material, industrial and automotive parts (Baiardo et al., 2004; Huda et al., 2008; Liu et al., 2004; Nishino et al., 2003).
