Design and Development of an I-Beam from Natural Composites

Inspired by the increasing use of wood composite I-beams for structural members in residential construction, we sought to make further improvement using natural fiber reinforced plastics to enhance durability, stiffness, and pest resistance. A vacuum infusion process was designed and used to manufacture an I-Beam from natural, inexpensive, and abundant jute fibers combined with a soybean oil based resin system. First, the permeability of the woven untreated jute fabric (burlap) was characterized. Then, three point bend samples of the natural composites were manufactured and tested to evaluate their structural properties. Next, a prototype beam was designed, and the manufacturing process was optimized using mold filling simulations to reduce the filling time and to ensure complete fabric saturation. Two sizes of I-Beams were constructed: the smaller beam (about one and a half inches tall) for our available three point bending test setup and the larger one (about five inches tall) to demonstrate scaling up of the manufacturing process. Thus, the original contribution of this research is the design and the unique approach to use the VARTM process to successfully manufacture I-Beams from natural composites that should be able to withstand structural loads required of infrastructure applications.