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7
Bast Fibers Composites
for Engineering
Structural Applications
Myth or the Future Trend
Bartosz T. Weclawski and Mizi Fan
7.1 INTRODUCTION
Natural ber composites (NFCs) should be compared with relevant substitute civil
engineering materials in order to analyze the capability of application in this sector.
Usually, this group of materials is compared with glass ber reinforced–composites
(GFRC). Thygesen et al. (2006) in their investigation into hemp-reinforced compos-
ites analyzed mechanical properties for application in wind turbine fan blades. They
concluded that at this stage material is not suitable for use in fan construction due to