Banana fibers have shown high variability along the
length and between fibers, which is a characteristic of
natural fibers. The standard deviation has been found
to decrease with increasing diameter of fibers. The
diameter variability had a normal distribution. The
tenacity of banana fibers was a function of the testing
speed. At lower strain rate, an increase in strain
facilitates the amorphous to crystalline sharing of
load. At higher speeds however, the faults dominate
with catastrophic failure at the highest strain rates.
Some of the stress strain curves showed signs of
strain hardening. Banana fiber at present is a waste
product of banana cultivation and either not properly
utilized or partially done so. The extraction of fiber
from the pseudostem is not a common practice and
much of the stem is not used for production of fibers.
The behaviour of the fibers also gives important hint
regarding their subsequent behaviour as
reinforcement in composites. There is scope for
further research to completely characterise the banana
fibers and facilitate proper applications in natural
fiber reinforced composites.