Mechanical Properties and Life-Cycle Sustainability Aspects of Natural Fibre

In order to understand the basic definition of the natural material, references of recently published articles were studied. From these articles, the definition of different terms like renewable material, recyclable material, biodegradable material, sustainable material and finally natural material were collected. Furthermore, a classification of natural fibre was drawn. One of these natural fibres - the coconut was chosen for a more detail analysis in mechanical point of view. An integrated method to analyse the sustainability of the coconut fibre as one of the blend components in building construction will be suggested. Finally, several uses of the fibre are reviewed.Conference held 2011 in Shanghai