Recycled needle punched jute fiber mats as a first natural fiber reinforcement system and these jute mats used as a core needle punched with recycled jute fabric cloths as skin layers as a second natural fiber reinforcement system were used for unsaturated polyester matrix composites via modifying the hand lay-up technique with resin preimpregnation into the jute fiber in vacuum. The effect of skin jute fabric on the tensile and bending properties of jute mat composites was investigated for different fiber weight contents. Moreover, the notch sensitivity of these composites was also compared by using the characteristic distance d o calculated by Finite Element Method (FEM). The results showed that the tensile and flexural properties of jute mat composites increased by increasing the fiber weight content and by adding the jute fabric as skin layers. On the other hand, by adding the skins, the characteristic distance decreased and, therefore, the notch sensitivity of the composites increased. The fracture behavior investigated by SEM showed that extensive fiber pull-out mechanism was revealed at the tension side of jute mat composites under the bending load and by adding the jute cloth, the failure mode of jute mat was changed to fiber bridge mechanism.

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This paper investigates the quasi-static compression properties of cardboard panels reinforced with braided glass fiber rods manufactured using a tubular braiding method. Compression tests are performed on single- and two-layer panels reinforced with varying number of rods and panel layer orientation. The crushing results of single-layer panels show more progressive crushing behavior than those of two-layer panels for different number of rods. In two-layer panels, certain rods are inclined from the direction of applied load due to deformation of the surrounding cardboard, resulting in reduced specific energy absorption compared with single-layer panels. Moreover, panels consisting of two layers of cardboard oriented in the same direction perform better than when the layers are off-set 90° where cardboard shifting is more pronounced. The role of cardboard is to constrain the rods from excessive splaying, causing greater levels of fiber fragmentation which consumes more energy compared with rods without cardboard.

This article presents an experimental study on the crushing properties of recycled cardboard panels reinforced with hybrid columnar aluminum tube-GFRP rods made by a tubular braiding method under quasi-static compression. The effects of number of hybrid columnar aluminum tube-GFRP rods with a taper are investigated in single-