Review Article

Composites and Advanced Materials

Volume 32: 1–18
A review of recent developments in © The Author(s) 2023
Article reuse guidelines:
structural applications of natural sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/26349833221147540

fiber-Reinforced composites (NFRCs) journals.sagepub.com/home/acm

Hossein Abdollahiparsa , Ali Shahmirzaloo, Patrick Teuffel and Rijk Blok

Abstract
Natural fiber-reinforced composites (NFRCs) are expected to find growing applications in near future, especially in Europe
where stringent environmental codes are being legislated and public pressure for their enforcement is increasing. Study has
shown that NFRCs are also gaining recognition among civil engineers as a viable alternative to traditional materials for use as
concrete reinforcement in load-bearing structural members as in building frames and bridge decks. The present review
strives to provide a brief overview of NFRCs, state-of-the-art developments in their manufacture, and examples of their
structural applications. Another aspect of the review involves investigation of the challenges facing the use of fiber
composite materials in civil engineering. These include the high manufacturing costs, difficulties associated with appraisal of
its potential benefits, uncertainties about their properties, lack of understanding among civil engineers of the material and
its service life, and the relatively small battery of standards developed for the composite industry. Finally, the study will
conclude with the prospects of bio-composite applications and the emerging trends in novel bio-composites for future
structural applications.

Keywords
Natural fiber composites, biomaterials, structural application, bio-based composites

Introduction each specific application. Therefore, interest in natural fiber-

The use of natural fibers in composites dates back to three
thousand years ago in ancient Egypt where straw and clay
were combined to build walls. Over the last decade, polymer
composites reinforced with natural fibers have won an ever-
increasing attention among both academics and industri-
alists. The growing environmental awareness worldwide
has led to an increasing interest in natural fibers and their
applications so that their study is nowadays considered an
important field.1 There exists a wide variety of natural fibers
that can be employed as reinforcement or fillers. Fiber
composites composed of natural fibers offer such advan-
tages as high strength, lightweight, and high durability as
well as resistance to water, chemical attacks, electric cur-
rent, fire, and corrosion. Moreover, they have proved cost
effective in most applications as the properties of fiber
composites can be engineered to match the requirements of
reinforced composites (NFRCs) composites is growing
rapidly2–7 in the transportation sector, aerospace, marine,
construction, and automotive industry. It is important to
note that natural fibers have some disadvantages, such as
low thermal stability (likely to degrade at 220–250°C).
Hydrophilic nature of natural fibers results very poor in-
terface and poor resistance to moisture absorption. The lack
of good adhesion between natural fibers and polymeric
Department of the Built Environment, Eindhoven University of
Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands
Date received: 21 September 2022; accepted: 3 December 2022
Corresponding author:
Hossein Abdollahiparsa, Eindhoven University of Technology, Unit
406 No. 42, De Lismortel street, Eindhoven 5600 MB, Netherlands.
Email: parsa.engi@gmail.com

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2 Composites and Advanced Materials
matrix materials, as well as the high moisture absorption of
natural fibers, negatively affect the mechanical properties.
To develop composites with better mechanical properties
and environmental performance, it is necessary to enhance
the hydrophobicity of flax fibers by treating them with
appropriate coupling agents or coating them with appro-
priate resins.
Fiber composite materials such as glass fiber, carbon
fiber, and aramid have been widely used in the automotive
and aircraft industries and are now being used for structural
applications. In structural applications, fiber composites
have been used to rehabilitate existing structures such as
bridges and buildings, especially those that are exposed to
the marine corrosive environment.8 Their migration from
the customary automotive, marine, aerospace, and military
industries to the construction industry has continued to gain
momentum over the last decade as new civil engineering
applications develop. The use of fiber composite materials
in civil engineering has now evolved from non-structural
applications, such as handrails and cladding, to primary
structural applications such as building frames, bridge
decks, and concrete reinforcement.9 The need for more
environmentally friendly materials has nowadays shifted
the attention once paid to synthetic products back to
NFRCs. Manufacturing bricks and pottery with straw-
reinforced clay is the first known use of natural fiber
composites.10 Much of the early research and development
in fiber composites was devoted to the use of synthetic
fibers. Although synthetic fiber composite materials such as
glass fibers, carbon fibers, and aramid are high performance
ones, they are not adequately biodegradable as they are
made of non-renewable materials. These environmental
benefits as well as the associated cost savings are enough
justification for the use of natural fibers. There is a sub-
stantial difference between natural fiber composites and
glass or carbon composites in terms of environmental im-
pact. Taking into consideration that the energy required to
produce natural fibers is less than half that for synthetic
fibers, see Figure 1, can justify this.
Application of natural fibers as a construction material is
not new. It has a long history as old as the Persian civili-
zation in old Iran where many cities and towns still host
ancient monuments and buildings made of adobe. Indeed,
parts of Iran are museums of the adobe culture. Long before
a century ago, people in many small towns and villages in
China and Korea had already learned to mix straw and mud
to make adobe for building walls. These peoples, however,
had no idea how they could systematically study the fun-
damental mechanisms and processes involved in the re-
inforcing effect of natural fibers and what could be done to
maximize their performance in strengthening structures.
Currently, however, NFRCs have found wide applications
in the automotive and building industries and there is still
more room for their development in such structural
Figure 1. Production energy for some fibers.11
ingredients as primary components of aerospace and marine
structures.12 The difficulty, however, lies in the evaluation
of the quality of natural fibers for use in such applications.
The real challenge in this regard lies in the development of a
general relation capable of capturing and predicting the
structural and mechanical properties of NFRCs since large
variations are typically observed in their properties and
characteristics.
The properties of NFRCs are to a large extent influenced
by the type of fiber used, the environmental conditions
where the fiber producing plants grow, and the type of
treatment applied to the extracted fibers.8 These issues are,
in fact, critical deterrents to the generalized use of natural
fibers in different applications. To address this gap, this
article intends to provide a brief review of the literature on
bio-composites, major classes of natural fibers, and real-life
engineering applications of natural fibers including load-
bearing structural members such as beams and roofs in
building frames, bridge decks, and concrete reinforcement.
Finally, the current limitations on NFRC applications are
investigated in order for researchers and engineers to gain an
understanding of the design requirements of NFRCs for
structural applications in future.
Natural fibers
The new legislation and codes in the US and Europe (and to
a lesser extent in other parts of the world) are now fueling an
insatiable hunger for novel recyclable and/or biodegradable
materials to avoid the financial penalties. Moreover, a
corresponding interest is growing among materials scien-
tists to use natural fibers extracted from wood or such plants
as hemp, flax, jute, kenaf, ramie, and sisal in manufacturing
new composites. Natural fibers offer such advantages as
biodegradability, appropriate mechanical properties such as
high strength and stiffness due to their high cellulose
content,13 and sustainability, which make them attractive
alternatives to synthetic reinforcing fibers commonly used
in composites.14 These have led to a strong resurgence of
Abdollahiparsa et al.
Figure 2. Classification of natural fibers.16
interest in natural fibers over the past decade. If used in
combination with a degradable polymer matrix, natural
fibers also serve as an inexpensive, renewable, and less toxic
alternative to synthetic fibers. Natural fibers are mainly of
plant, mineral, or animal origin (Figure 2). The first is
essentially comprised of cellulose, while the last is protein-
based. However, in the composites industry, natural fibers
are often referred to as vegetable fibers.15 Plant fibers de-
rived from bast (stem, soft tissues, or sclerenchyma); plant
leaf, seed, fruit, and wood; or cereal and grass straw are
generally the most popular of natural fibers used as rein-
forcement in fiber-reinforced composites.6,16
Natural fibers are strong, lightweight, considerably cost-
effective, abundant, and renewable. An important issue
concerning natural fibers, however, is the scant literature
reports on their mechanical properties. This is even more
complicated by the lack of standard methods for their se-
lection, collection, treatment, processing, and post-
processing.6,16 The properties of natural fibers depend
mainly on the nature of the plant, the locality where it is
grown, plant age, and the extraction method used17 Table 1
reports the properties of some natural fibers and the main
types of glass fibers (E-glass). Clearly, flax, hemp, and
ramie fibers amongst the cellulose-based natural fibers have
3
the highest specific young’s moduli and tensile strengths
albeit with a great variability.18
Mechanical properties of natural fibers composite are
affected by some factors, these are listed below:
(1) Selecting fibers (extraction method, type, harvest
time, treatment and fiber content)
(2) Resin type
(3) Stacking sequence of fibers
(4) Interfacial strength
(5) Manufacturing process
Traditionally, especially in rural areas in developing
countries, natural fibers have been cultivated and used
extensively for such non-structural applications as multi-
purpose ropes, bag, broom, fish net, and filters. These fibers
have also been used for housing applications as roofing and
wall insulation. Figure 3 presents pictures of coir (obtained
from the husk of coconut fruit), sisal twine, jute, gomuti, and
short hemp fiber.
These fibers are generally coarse-textured with colors
varying from white to dark brown. Sisal fibers, extracted
from the leaves of sisal plant, are stiff and relatively coarse-
textured, even though less coarse than coir. Gomuti fibers,
4 Composites and Advanced Materials

Table 1. Properties of natural fibers and synthetic fibers.18

Stiffness/young’s Specific tensile

Failure Tensile strength modules strength Specific young’s
Fiber Density (g/cm3) Length (mm) strain (%) (MPa) (GPa) (MPa/cm 3) modules

Ramie 1.5 900–1200 2.0–3.8 400–938 44–128 270–620 29–85

Flax 1.5 5–900 1.2–3.2 345–1830 27–80 230–1220 18–53
Hemp 1.5 5–55 1.6 550–1110 58–70 370–740 39–47
Jute 1.3–1.5 1.5–120 1.5–1.8 393–800 10–55 300–610 7.1–39
Harakeke 1.3 4–5 4.2–5.8 440–990 14–33 388–761 11–25
Sisal 1.3–1.5 900 2.0–2.5 507–855 9.4–28 362–610 6.7–20
Alfa 1.4 350 1.5–2.4 188–308 18–25 134–220 13–18
Cotton 1.5–1.6 10–60 3.0–10 287–800 5.5–13 190–530 3.7–8.4
Coir 1.2 20–150 15–30 131–220 4–6 110–180 3.3–5
Silk 1.3 Continuous 15–60 100–1500 5–25 100–1500 4–20
Feather 0.9 10–30 6.9 100–203 3–10 112–226 3.3–11
Wool 1.3 38–152 13.2–35 50–315 2.3–5 38–242 1.8–3.8
E-glass 2.5 Continuous 2.5 2000–3000 70 800–1400 29

Figure 4. Schematic view of a composite material.21

2017).19 These facts highlight the crucial need for a change

toward more sustainable methods of building in the near
future.

Figure 3. Pictures of some natural fibers.8
obtained from Arenga Pinnata (sugar-palm) tree, are gen-
erally stiff and black in color. Hemp and jute fibers have
finer textures and are smaller in diameter than coir, gomuti,
and sisal ones but larger than glass fibers (diameter: 2.5–
10 μm)8.
The construction industry consumes more than 40% of
global resources and more than 35% of the global energy to
produce around 50% of the non-recyclable waste. Until
now, aggregate materials and concrete have been the pre-
dominant materials used by the building industry in the EU
(UN Environment and International Energy Agency,
Bio-Composites
Composite is a combination of two or more materials in
which one serves as the reinforcing phase (fiber, sheet) and
the other as the matrix phase (polymer, ceramics, or metals).
Figure 4 shows a hybrid material made of a polymer resin
reinforced with fibers; the composite combines the high
mechanical and physical properties of the fibers used with
the bonding and physical properties as well as the appealing
appearance of the polymer.20,21
The term ‘bio-composites’ broadly covers those com-
posite materials in which at least one constituent is bio-
based. Examples include i) non-biodegradable, bio-fiber
reinforced polymers derived from petroleum (e.g., poly-
olefins, polyester, epoxy, vinyl ester, and phenolics); ii) bio-
polymers (e.g., PLA) reinforced with bio-fibers (e.g., jute);
Abdollahiparsa et al.
Figure 5. Classification of bio-composites.22,23
Figure 6. Types of natural fiber reinforcement.6
and iii) bio-polymers reinforced with such synthetic fibers
as glass or carbon fibers. Depending on the nature of the
constituents, bio-based composites may be classified into
partly eco-friendly and green (Figure 5). By green is meant a
composite whose components are obtained from renewable
sources, potentially reducing carbon dioxide emissions and
reliance on petroleum-derived materials. While partly eco-
friendly composites have one constituent, either the fiber or
the matrix, not obtained from renewable sources.22
Natural fiber composites depend for their performance
directly on the fiber counts, length, shape, and arrangement/
orientation as well as their interfacial adhesion to the ma-
trix.24 Natural fiber reinforcement may be classified based
on fiber length, dimension, and orientation as shown in
Figure 6. Reinforcement may come either as fiber or par-
ticle. When in fiber form, it may be either continuous or
discontinuous (i.e., chopped) depending on the length-to-
diameter ratio (l/d). Commonly, fiber-reinforcement may
assume a woven or a non-woven arrangement. A woven
fabric is characterized by continuous interlacing of per-
pendicular yarns arranged in a regular pattern, with yarn
referring to structures consisting of several interlocked
fibers.6
5
While bio-composites with at least one biomass-based
component manufactured mostly as wood polymer com-
posites (WPCs) that consist of wood and agricultural res-
idues bonded together by thermoplastics found their first
applications in the building industry back in the 1990s,
those containing lignocellulosic fibers were first employed
in the automotive industry by Henry Ford in the 1940s.
Other than the car industry, the natural fiber-reinforced
polymer composites (NFPCs) have found building and
construction, aerospace, and sports applications in such
products as partition boards, ceilings, boats, office products,
and machinery. NFPCs have found their greatest applica-
tions as non-load-bearing indoor components in buildings
because of their vulnerability to outdoor environmental
attacks.25 In contrast, natural fiber reinforced composites
also enjoy such advantages as high stiffness to weight ratio,
lightweight, and biodegradability that make them especially
suitable for different applications in the construction
industry.26
Green buildings are expected to offer ecologically sound
and healthy places for people to live and work in. Presently,
bio-composites are regarded as the major type of material to
make green buildings possible. Based on the type of
6 Composites and Advanced Materials

application in buildings, bio-composites may be classified
into two principal groups of products: (1) structural bio-
composites used as bridge and roofing and (2) nonstructural
components including windows, exterior building façade,
composite panels, and door frames.27 Furthermore, bamboo
fibers can be used as reinforcement in structural concrete
elements while sisal or coir fiber composites may be used as
roofing components to replace asbestos or asphalt.28 Natural
fiber reinforced concrete sheet (both plain and corrugated)
and board products in construction applications are light in
weight and ideal for use in roofing, ceiling, and walling for
affordable housing projects.29 Table 2 reports the various
industrial applications of cellulosic fibers.
As already mentioned, bio-composites offer the potential
for “greening” our planet by reducing our dependence on
petroleum products; unfortunately, however, this potential is
yet fully exploited since structural applications of bio-
composites by the industry has been limited by the diffi-
culties associated with taking full advantage of the me-
chanical properties of natural fibers.30
On the other hand, the main challenge in using these
natural fibers in various polymer matrixes lies in their poor
compatibility with the matrix due to their inherently high
moisture absorption that causes dimensional changes in the
lignocellulosic-based fibers. The efficiency of a fiber re-
inforced composite depends on the fiber/matrix interface
and its ability to transfer stress from the matrix to the fiber.
Stress transfer, indeed, plays a key role in sustaining the
mechanical properties of the resulting composite.31 The
hydrophilicity of natural fibers results in their high moisture
absorption and weak adhesion to hydrophobic matrices. As
a remedy, natural fibers can be treated in order to improve
their adhesion to matrix materials. Additionally, most
natural fibers have low degradation temperatures (∼200°C),
which makes them incompatible with thermosets that have
high decomposition temperature especially when thermoset
have been hardened with maleic anhydride. This range of
degradation temperature also restricts natural fiber com-
posites to relatively low temperature applications. Appli-
cation of natural fibers for industrial purposes has been
claimed to face such other challenges as large variability in
mechanical properties,32,33 low ultimate strength, low
elongation, clogging nozzle flows in injection molding
machines, bubbled products, and poor resistance to
weathering.34
In practice, the major drawbacks of using natural fibers
are their high degree of moisture absorption (Table 3)19 and
poor dimensional stability. Numerous NFRC is composed
of cellulose, a natural polymer with three hydroxyl groups
(one oxygen atom covalently bonded to one hydrogen atom)
per repeating unit. As long as moisture from the atmosphere
comes in contact with the fiber, the hydroxyl groups form
new hydrogen bonds with water molecules, whereby fiber
cross section area becomes the main surface exposed to
water penetration. The interaction between hydrophilic fiber
and the hydrophobic matrix causes fibers to swell within the
matrix that weakens the bonding strength at the interface,
leading to dimensional instability, matrix cracking, and poor

Table 2. Natural fiber composite applications in industry.8

Fiber Application in buildings, construction, and others

Hemp fiber Construction products textiles, cordage, geotextiles, paper and packing, furniture, electrical, manufacture bank notes
and manufacture of pipes
Oil palm fiber Building materials such as windows, door frames, structural insulated panel building systems, sidings, fencing, roofing,
decking, other building materials13
Wood fiber Window frame panels, door shutters, decking, railing systems and fencing
Flax fiber Window frame, panels, decking, railing systems, fencing, tennis racket, bicycle frame, fork, seat post, snowboarding, and
laptop cases
Rice husk fiber Building materials such as building panels, bricks, window frame, panels, decking, railing systems, and fencing
Bagasse fiber Window frame, panels, decking, railing systems and fencing
Sisal fiber In construction industry such as panels, doors, shutting plate, and roofing sheets; also, manufacturing of paper and pulp
Stalk fiber Buildings panel, furniture panels, bricks, and constructing drains and pipelines
Kenaf fiber Packing materials, mobile cases, bags, insulations, clothing-grade cloth, soilless potting mixes, animal beddings, and
material that absorbs oil and liquids
Cotton fiber Furniture industry, textile and yarn, goods, and cordage
Coir fibers Building panels, flush door shutters, roofing sheets, storage tank, packing materials helmets and postboxes, mirror casing,
paperweights, projector cover, voltage stabilizer cover, a filling materials for the seat upholstery, brushes and brooms,
ropes, and yarns for nets, bags and mats, as well as padding for mattresses, seat cushions
Ramie fiber Use in products as industrial sewing thread, packing materials, fishing nets, and filter cloths. It is also made into fabrics for
household furnishings (upholstery, canvas) and clothing, paper manufacture
Jute fiber Buildings panels, roofing sheets, door frames, door shutters, transport, packaging, geotextiles, and chip boards
Abdollahiparsa et al.
Table 3. Moisture absorption tendency of several natural fibers.17
Type of fiber, %
Moisture absorption tendency, % Jute Banana Coir
Absorbancy 12.5 10–15 10–12
Transverse swelling in water 20–22 16–20 5–15
mechanical properties of the final composite.35 Preventing
moisture absorption by the fiber is, therefore, an essential
step in manufacturing composites. This can be achieved
through different chemical treatments to eliminate the hy-
drophilic hydroxyl groups from the fiber structure.36
In the absence of chemical agents, physical treatments
have been employed to achieve improved natural fiber
composites. The physical treatments proposed for altering
the structural and surface properties of fibers have been
classified into the following four groups: (i) corona, (ii)
plasma, (iii) heat treatments, and (iv) steam pre-treatment.37
The properties of natural fibers for engineering appli-
cations have not yet been adequately addressed in most
previous research. However, some of the major issues raised
include high moisture absorption (5–10%), flammability,
inconsistent raw materials and their properties, and bonding
between natural fibers and polymeric matrices; these appear
to be the most pressing disadvantages that must be lifted in
order to adapt natural fiber to real-life applications. Locality,
climate during source plant growing period, plant part
harvested for fiber extraction, and plant maturity are also the
factors that influence the properties of the extracted NF
since they raise uncertainties regarding the properties of
natural fibers for product development.12 Cementitious
materials are recognized as tension-weak materials, in
which micro-cracks easily form on the product surface or at
the interface between the cement phase and the aggregates
after the hydration reaction is complete. Even though tensile
loading can be resisted by the embedded steel bar rein-
forcement, shrinkage and reduced moisture content cause
micro-cracks during the hydration process. For concrete
structures, cement is the fundamental substance to bond all
the aggregates (i.e., sand, filler, and small and large ag-
gregates) together to form structures of high compressive
strength.
Fiber distribution is also important for in-house or on-site
applications. Large amounts of agglomerated fiber would
cause substantial reductions in concrete strength. Hence,
many studies in the past have used short natural fibers as a
measure to enhance the tensile strength of the cement phase
and, thereby, to minimize the probability of cracking. This is
why application of natural fiber-cement composites in
residential housing projects has been limited to building
exterior parts such as siding and roofing. It has been shown,
however, that degradation due to such harsh environmental
conditions as high humidity and temperature may be
7
Flax Mesta PALM Sisal Wood Sun Hemp Ramie
7 13 10–13 10–12 — 10–11 5–6
20–25 20–22 18–20 18–20 — 18–20 18–20
diminished by surface treatment or resurfacing of natural
fibers with NaOH or AlCl3, H2SO4, or Ca(OH)2.38–42
Moreover, additional protection may be provided by ap-
plying coating materials on these structures to avoid
weathering attacks. Overall, natural-fiber composites are
seen as potentially useful materials for many engineering
applications despite their drawbacks outlined above that
limit their use in near future. In this regard, fracture me-
chanics might be exploited to gain insight into the physical
conditions and processes within these composites that might
help the production of natural-fiber composites with im-
proved properties.43
Structural application of natural
fiber-reinforced composites (NFRC)
Natural fibers as construction materials are not entirely new;
in fact, they have been used since the early seventies. In
Bangladesh, primary schools were constructed using jute
fiber reinforced polyester in 1972–1973 as the first natural
fiber composite material to be used in a developing
country.39 Natural fiber composites have already been used
to produce non-structural elements in the automotive in-
dustry. A study reported in 1986 that coir/polyester com-
posites were being used to produce mirror casing,
paperweights, projector cover, voltage stabilizer covers,
mail-box, helmets, and roofs.40 In the 1980s, Jamaican,
Ghanaian, and Philippine houses were constructed using
building panels and roofing sheets made from bagasse/
phenolic. As part of a program to develop wood substi-
tutes for packaging and construction, the Government of
India supported the development of composite products
based on jute. Many attempts have been made to use natural
fiber polymer composites to fabricate wall panels, roof
sheets, temporary shelters, and post office boxes, but such
composites fail in wet conditions, either by swelled fibers or
by delamination, due to crack growth between plies.39
Burgueno et al. have shown that bio-composites are able
to be used as load-bearing members by arranging their
cellular materials in a way that increases their structural
efficiency. To prepare laboratory-scale periodic cellular
beams and plates, they impregnated hemp and flax fibers
with unsaturated polyester resin. Tests were conducted on
their specimens in order to assess their material and
structural performance. The results were compared to those
obtained for short-fiber composite micromechanical models
8 Composites and Advanced Materials
and sandwich analyses. In conclusion, a short-term ana-
lytical assessment of full-scale cellular bio-composite
components concluded that their properties were compa-
rable to those of conventional components.
Natural fiber-reinforced polymeric structural insulated
panels (NSIPs) were developed by Uddin et al. for use in
panelized construction. The sandwich panel is made from
skins of laminated polypropylene reinforced with jute, and a
core of expanded polystyrene (EPS). The structure was
characterized using flexural and low-velocity impact tests.
The results of both tests confirmed that NSIPs could serve as
an alternative to OSB SIPs and G/PP SIPs for structural
applications such as floors and walls.43
Despite the many studies conducted so far, no satis-
factory results have yet been obtained concerning the
structural characteristics or economic advantages of
NSIPs. A bio-based building component that offers higher
structural performance is normally associated with sig-
nificantly higher cost, at least due to its larger dimensions.
On the other hand, reducing dimensions to maintain costs
within an affordable range will only produce building
components of a low structural performance which may
not be able to compete with conventional building ma-
terials. For instance, Singh et al. reported that the single-
layered natural fiber-based panel used as an alternative to
plywood lacked the desired qualities in terms of specific
strength, stiffness, and dimensional stability to be used as a
building material. To deal with this problem, hybrid nat-
ural fibers have been used to develop a composite lami-
nate.44 Christian et al. suggested that the shape of
structural components could be modified in a way to
prevent the large deflections of natural fiber composites
due to their low modulus of elasticity.45 Using Natural
Fiber Reinforced Plastics (NFRP), Fajrin et al. developed a
novel building component they named ‘hybrid structural
insulated panels’ (hybrid SIPs). Their test results showed
improved structural properties of the novel hybrid SIPs.
The authors found that laminates made from the two types
of jute and hemp natural fibers and used as an intermediate
layer to form hybrid SIPs would significantly improve the
load-carrying capacity of the panels thus made.46 In this
technique, a natural fiber-reinforced plastic (NFRP) lam-
inate is placed as an intermediate layer between the alu-
minum skin and the EPS core to produce a hybrid SIP
(Figure 7). Figure 8 presents the load-deflection curve
obtained from the full-scale test of structural insulated
panels.
Several load-bearing components have been developed
with natural fiber composites, including beams, roofs,
multipurpose panels, and pedestrian bridges. More interest
is now being shown in investigations to determine the
suitability of natural fiber composites for structural appli-
cations that require moderate strength, reduced production
costs, and environmentally friendly features.
Beams
As the structural members of buildings, bridges, and similar
structures, beams are traditionally made from wood, re-
inforced concrete, steel profiles, or laminated veneer lumber
(LVL). Meant to resist bending or flexural stresses, struc-
tural beams are subjected to three- or four-point bending
tests to determine their load capacity, flexural stress, strain,
deflection, and modulus of elasticity. It is now possible to
design structural beams and pedestrian bridge girders with
loads ranging from low to moderate by using NFRCs. As a
result of their low density and low cost as well as their
environmental benefits, natural fiber composites have been
considered for beam development. Recent studies have also
shown reduced cost, lower weight, as well as faster and
easier installation procedures as advantages of fiber com-
posites used as beams.
The concept of composite sandwich beams due to Dweib
et al.47 is one of the many feasible ones in which several
layers of materials are combined to form a single structural
element. The ultimate goal is to develop monolithic
structural panels suitable for use as (load-bearing) roofs,
flooring, or walls in housing or low-rise commercial
building projects. The beams thus manufactured have been
subjected to the four-point bending test to determine their
strength, stiffness, and failure mode. First, small unit beams
have been designed and fabricated using vacuum-assisted
resin transfer molding (VARTM) technology in which the
preform is vacuum-bagged on a one-sided mold, as shown
in Figure 9, and resin is drawn into the preform from above
by sub-zero pressure. Due to the prohibitive costs of high-
temperature post-curing, room temperature curing of the
resin has been found necessary for the manufacture of large-
scale structures.
A sandwich beam is constructed with soybean-oil-based
resin, natural fibers (such as flax, recycled paper, and
chicken feathers), E-glass fiber, and closed cell structural
foam. Figure 10 shows a schematic illustration of the
prototype beam studied in Dweib et al. The beam has a top
horizontal face sheet, a bottom horizontal face sheet, and
two vertical webs.
In spite of the fact that the authors reported that recycled
paper produced good composites when they made flat
sheets of composite, they failed to make a three-dimensional
structure due to problems with resin flow. In order to
overcome the problem, other porous fibers, such as recycled
paper, were used along with the main reinforcement
(i.e., recycled paper), to provide flow channels for the resin,
particularly through the beam web. An example of how
porous fiber mats were used in combination with recycled
paper to deliver a better resin flow and properly-infused
beams can be seen in Figure 11.
The five beam types used in Dweib et al. were subjected
to four-point bending tests to study their strength, stiffness,
Abdollahiparsa et al.
Figure 7. Typical distribution of stress in conventional and hybrid SIPs (above and below).46
Figure 8. Load-deflection curve of the full-scale structural
insulated panels.46
and failure mode in a pure bending mode. Table 4 sum-
marizes the key results obtained, including failure load,
maximum recorded strain, and global modulus while
Table 5 describes the failure modes experienced by the five
beams tested. Five different structural beams were suc-
cessfully manufactured and mechanically tested giving
good results.
9
Applying this type of composite in building construction
brings various advantages such as desired ductility, high
strength, and stiffness to weight, survivability in severe
weather conditions, fatigue resistance, and design
flexibility.47
Roof
In developing countries, roofing materials are in high
demand due to population growth, the increasing need for
construction materials, and the desire to renovate and
rehab existing homes. In rural tropical Africa, more than
90% of roofs are made with traditional materials such as
grass, coconut leaves, or palm leaves. Tropical environ-
ments have high rainfall and humidity along with a high
incidence of insects and pests that feed on cellulosic
materials, which makes these materials insufficient, which
limits the life of a roof to just a few years.48 The use of
corrugated iron and aluminum roofing materials has in-
creased in recent years. Peasants, however, are not only
faced with high prices but are also in short supply of these
products. There have been a number of attempts to in-
troduce ceramic tiles, but their higher timber requirements
and greater skill requirements have made them uneco-
nomical to introduce. In Tanzania, natural fiber-reinforced
cement tiles (reinforced with asbestos or sisal fiber) are
10 Composites and Advanced Materials

Figure 9. Schematic view of the VARTM process when a structural part is infused.47

Figure 10. A schematic diagram showing the dimensions of test beams (inches).47

manufactured on a small scale. Materials in this category
are heavy and fragile, and therefore they cannot be handled
on a rudimentary level in rural Africa and other developing
countries. Recently, vegetable fiber-reinforced polymers
have been utilized for roofing and other building purposes.
A low-cost housing solution has been developed to con-
struct houses entirely out of jute and polyester composites
using basic hand lay-up methods and filament winding
molding.49
The work of Bisanda demonstrated the potential for
developing useful engineering products from natural
resources of fibers and resins. The author claimed that even
though these materials are not as strong as most conven-
tional materials, their development and subsequent de-
ployment in developing countries might revolutionize the
construction industry in these countries, especially for the
rural peasant population. It makes sense that vegetable fi-
bers like sisal growing in these areas would provide strength
and stiffness comparable to glass fiber. In addition, chemical
treatment can be applied to the fiber surface to create an
interface that is compatible with most thermosetting resin
matrices. The cost of synthetic resins is higher than that of
Abdollahiparsa et al. 11

Figure 11. A schematic view of the porous fiber in the preform.47

Table 4. An overview of the failure load, maximum strain, and modulus.47

Beam global modulus, MPa (ksi)

Reinforcement fiber Failure load kN (klb) Maximun strain, με from deflection-load data

Flax mat 10.2 (2.3) 9842 300 (43.5)

Woven E-glass fiber 39.3 (8.83) 4273 1580 (229.2)
Recycled paper/chicken feathers 24.2 (5.44) 15045 950 (137.8)
Recycled paper/corrugated form 25.8 (5.8) 11158 1214 (176.1)
Recycled paper/woven E-glass fiber 25.6 (5.76) 5667 1670 (242.2)

Table 5. Descriptions of the beams’ failure modes.47

Failure description

Flax beam A brittle failure mode was observed. The beam was broken down into two parts.
The location of fracture was between the two loading points, and about 1.5 from
one of the loading point
Recycled paper/chicken feathers beam and recycled A brittle failure mode was observed. The beam was broken down into two parts.
paper/corrugated paper beam The location of fracture was between the two loading points, and about 2.0 from
the center of the beam
Woven E-glass beam and recycled paper with E-glass A non-brittle failure mode was observed. After the maximum loading was reached,
beam the beam began to unload. Finally the beam could hold as a whole, but a
permanent crack close to one of the loading point separated the top face into
two parts

sisal fiber, making these composites less suitable for low-
technology applications. CNSL (cashew nut shell liquid)
has been identified as a cheap, naturally occurring resin with
a phenol base. Using sisal fiber in the form of plain-woven
mats, a CNSL-formaldehyde resin matrix has been blended
with sisal fiber in compression to form corrugated com-
posites. Composite materials and related manufacturing
processes have been examined in order to determine
whether corrugated composites are suitable for roofing and
other construction purposes in tropical developing coun-
tries. It has been shown that bio-based composite materials
can be used not only for roof structures, but also to fabricate
structural beams with good results. A large-scale composite
structural panel has been manufactured successfully based
on beam test results. Additionally, natural materials such as
plant oil-based resins and natural fibers have been suc-
cessfully utilized as composite components for making
roofs for homes at low material and operational costs.50 The
12
Figure 12. Schematic view of the three different foam-core structural composites.50
Figure 13. Schematic view of the hypothetical house.50
Figure 12 illustrates the different possible designs for a
panel made of a composite skin and a foam core.
The bio-based composite roof was designed for a hy-
pothetical ranch-style house with an area of 7.32 m by
15.24 m. Eaves height was 4.75 m (15 ft) and roof rise was
3.05 m (10 ft). Instead of a conventional roof made up of
rafter/truss and plywood, the roof was designed as a
monolithic composite sandwich panel with one-way webs
running from the eaves to the ridge. An illustration of the
house is shown in Figure 13.
There was a pitched roof consisting of two structural
panels of 1.52 m by 2.59 m and a depth of 0.089 m that were
attached at the ridge (Figure 14). A modified vacuum as-
sisted resin transfer molding process (VARTM) has been
Composites and Advanced Materials
successfully used to produce structural panels of this size,
allowing visual inspection of the resin flow and an op-
portunity to use additional vacuum and injection lines on the
normally hidden bottom side.50
Tiny house
Over the past few years, researchers have been focused on
developing completely novel building materials in response
to the need by the growing world population and the tre-
mendous pressure on the climate due to high CO2 emissions
by the construction industry, which have resulted in de-
forestation, climate change, and the rapidly declining bio-
diversity. On account of this, the Tiny House prototype
Abdollahiparsa et al.
Figure 14. Bagged on a table and under vacuum part ready to be infused with resin.50
Figure 15. Picture of tiny house.52
shown in Figure 15 was presented in Emmen (NL). The
prototype is completely built with bio-composites produced
from agricultural products, residual flows, and recycled
materials so as to confirm it is possible to construct a modern
home without wood, concrete, or steel structures.51 This
prototypical house made out of such natural fibers as burlap,
hemp, and flax serves as a strategic step towards full-scale
industrial application of bio-composites in construction.52
In the Tiny House project, use was made of insulating
sandwich panels with bio-PUR, paper-based extrusion
profiles, structural pultrusion profiles with natural fibers,
and 100% bio-resins. In addition, this is a typical example of
what can be done with composites to integrate multiple
13
functions. For this purpose, use was made of a new tech-
nology known as vacuum injection in which all the ma-
terials are placed on a foam plate and wrapped in a film
before the air is sucked out to create a vacuum and the resin
is allowed to flow inside. Thus, a sandwich panel is created
that comprises the roof structure, heat insulation, and eaves
gutter profiles.51
Bridges
Very few examples have been so far developed of bio-
composites used as infrastructure components. One ex-
ample is the pedestrian bridge made by the Eindhoven
14
Figure 16. The bio-composite footbridge, 18 months after the installation across the river Dommel.53
University of Technology (Figure 16), in which the girder is
a bio-composite of hemp and flax fibers attached to a
polylactic acid (PLA)-based foam core.53
Three alternatives are traditionally in use for bridge
building in the Netherlands, namely concrete, steel, and
composites. Even if environmental concerns are not the
most important factor, composites often come in as the
winning solution. A composite bridge requires hardly any
maintenance, while a steel bridge has to be painted every
5 years. From a building cost viewpoint, concrete is usually
the cheapest alternative albeit a concrete bridge is impos-
sible in some locations because of its high weight while it
also occupies more space and takes more time to construct.
In such cases, a steel bridge might be preferred but only at a
higher cost. It follows that a composite bridge stands as the
really most economical solution. Moreover, a bio-composite
bridge will reasonably be the winner if environmental
concerns are the main factor to consider. In most focus
points, flax fibers score considerably higher than glass,
except for one: land use.54 The Ritsumasyl bridge is made of
flax reinforced epoxy, which is more flexible than steel but
less stiff than a glass fiber composite (Figure 17). In order to
ensure the required stiffness would be achieved, the bridge
design had to be modified solely by increasing bridge
thickness.
Although most materials exhibit a tendency to creep, the
creeping in this bridge completely vanished after a while.
There were even more surprising results; when tested for
fatigue in Delft, a lifespan of a hundred years, rather than the
required 50 years, was determined for the bridge; this came
as a surprise because natural fibers were thought to be
Composites and Advanced Materials
susceptible to moisture and damage while a special coating
had been applied on the composite in this case to prevent
moisture penetration. After years of service, the fibers are
still enclosed in the epoxy matrix, making it difficult for
moisture to reach them. The epoxy, a very durable resin that
keeps out almost anything, accounts for more than fifty
percent of the material used. A coating applied as an extra
protective layer can guarantee even higher levels of wa-
terproofing and protection against moisture penetration.
Currently, 100% bio-based resins are being developed but
more research is warranted before they can be used in
building bridges. Once this technology becomes possible,
the composites could in theory be shredded, ground, and
scattered all over the land. There will then be no need for
using different resins to make biodegradable bio-
composites.54 It is a misconception that it is always an
advantage if a product is biodegradable; this is only true for
short-lived products like packaging.
The Florida footbridge (Figure 18) is part of a 4-year
Interreg NWE research project called Smart Circular Bridge
(SCB) led by Eindhoven University of Technology (our
group) and involves 14 partners. 90 FBG sensors were used
to collect strain and temperature data in real-time. An ex-
perimental application of natural fiber-composites for load-
bearing purposes is the goal of the SCB project. The design,
production, and construction of two other pedestrian and
cycling bridges (one in Germany and one in the Nether-
lands) will take place in the next 3 years. The SCB project
proposes a new approach to overcome uncertainties through
the use of a structural health monitoring system, which can
monitor mechanical behavior and assess structural safety.
Abdollahiparsa et al.
Figure 17. The bio-composite bicycle bridge “Ritsumasyl.”54
Figure 18. The floriade bio-composite bicycle bridge.
Discussion
Application of natural fibers is on the rise and will
continue to dominate the market for the years to come. In
real life situations, natural fibers will carry on to be new
materials used to make reinforced composites for dif-
ferent structural applications. However, their mechanical
and chemical properties will remain not fully known for
some time since they are not synthesized and no specific
methodology is yet known for their manufacturing. The
drawbacks with natural fiber bio-composite application
15
as outlined above still await remedies while no substantial
progress is yet reported in this regard. This is mainly
because not much research has been devoted to the as-
sessment of the life cycle of natural textile reinforced
composites. Moreover, composite processing methods
need further investigation in order to enhance their po-
tential performance.
Bio-composites or biodegradable materials (like wood)
are characterized by shorter life-spans and require more
safety provisions to account for rotting and aging. A long-
lasting, load-bearing product is highly unlikely to be
16
biodegradable because any biodegradable material might
encounter problems of moisture penetration in the long run.
Water absorption deforms the surface of composites as a
result of swelling that creates voids, leading to reduced
strength and increased mass. The presently available
mathematical and numerical models for predicting the
properties of natural fiber-reinforced composites are not
always accurate enough due to the nonavailability of reli-
able input data. In another vein, it is no easy to model natural
fibers as a result of varying diameters along fiber length.
Finally, composite materials reinforced with natural fibers
are, in most cases, basically limited to the low to medium
load bearing applications.
These considerations require an enormous amount of
research in future as many of the issues raised in previous
works still await reasonable and convincing answers in
order to guarantee the reliability of natural fiber composites
for different applications. Thus, those research efforts may
be recommended as prioritized whose goal it is to improve
the properties of fiber-reinforced composites for different
applications.
Conclusions
Natural fiber composites have beneficial properties such as
low density, low material cost, and enhanced flexibility
when compared with synthetic composite products, thus
providing advantages for their utilization in commercial
applications (e.g., the automotive industry, buildings, and
construction industry). Natural fibers used as reinforcement
in composites have positive effect on the behavior of
structural elements made of such composites. This review
paper evaluated the properties of natural fiber reinforced
composites including their mechanical, thermal, energy
absorption, moisture absorption, and surface properties as
well as their biodegradability. Also, structural applications
of NFRCs were explored and the limitations on employing
natural fibers were examined. The initial excitement over
natural-fiber composites has now been somewhat tempered
as a result of the realization that achieving theoretical
strengths might not be possible, at least in the foreseeable
future. Thus, a more humble and reasonable speculation is
that the path to the adoption of natural-fiber composites for
structural applications, as compared with the widely ac-
cepted advanced composites, will be hindered by technical
challenges yet to be overcome.
It is expected that researchers will draw upon the insights
provided in this study and will formulate new matrix ma-
terials compatible with natural fibers that seem beneficial in
view of their availability and recyclability. Redesigning
natural fiber-reinforced composites with properties adjusted
to each specific structural application will no doubt enhance
the market base of natural fibers.
Composites and Advanced Materials
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to express his deepest gratitude to Rijk
Blok for always giving encouragement and providing invaluable
suggestions. His enthusiasm, knowledge and exacting attention to
detail have been an inspiration and kept this work on track al-
though he recently passed away. We lost a brilliant scientist and an
excellent professor in our department. Truly, your spirit is forever
with us.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with re-
spect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, au-
thorship, and/or publication of this article.
ORCID iD
Hossein Abdollahiparsa  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3291-0311
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