Abstract Currently, the industry requires the use of new materials that have better technical characteristics and that have a minimal environmental impact. A viable option to meet these requirements are biocomposite materials reinforced with natural fibers. Recent research in this field of composite materials has sought to develop better properties in the materials, giving rise to hybrid composites, which are composed of more than one fiber as reinforcement together with the matrix; however, these studies are mainly focused on synthetic fibers, leaving a large area of research regarding natural fibers. This article describes the manufacture, mechanical, and morphological characterization of new natural hybrid biocomposite materials of fique - mulberry. Five biocomposites were elaborated under the hand lay up manufacturing technique using various layers of fique and mulberry and using polyester resin as a matrix. The mechanical characterization was carried out by means of the tensile and bending test, obtaining the best mechanical properties in the composite with the greatest amount of natural fiber, which presented a tensile stress of 30.27 MPa and a bending stress of 18.97 MPa. The morphological characterization was carried out using scanning electron microscopy, where a medium resin-fiber adhesion and a decomposition of the matrix were observed.

Resumen En Colombia, existen poblaciones que tienen pozos, pilas públicas y ríos como fuente de aprovisionamiento de agua. Por esta razón, surge la necesidad de desarrollar y evaluar mecanismos que permitan mejorar las condiciones físicas, químicas y microbiológicas del agua que se utiliza para consumo humano en estas regiones. Este artículo describe el funcionamiento, el balance energético, la construcción y pruebas de un prototipo de destilador solar de una sola pendiente, cuyo uso es la determinación de la influencia de las temperaturas, el espesor del condensador y el nivel del agua dentro del colector en la eficiencia térmica del proceso de destilación de agua. El prototipo fue probado en condiciones medioambientales no contraladas en la ciudad de Bucaramanga, midiendo temperatura, radiación solar y volumen de agua destilada. Las líneas de tendencia obtenidas entre el volumen destilado en función de la radiación solar incidente, la diferencia de temperatura entre el agua y el aire interno del destilador, y entre el aire y el condensador en condiciones reales de funcionamiento, permitieron definir los parámetros de diseño óptimo. Después de analizados los resultados, se observó una relación lineal entre la radiación solar y el volumen destilado, además de una dependencia del volumen destilado con las diferencias de temperaturas presentes entre el agua, el aire y el condensador dentro del destilador.

Abstract In Colombia, there exist regions where they have wells, public cells or rivers as water resource. For this reason, there is the need of developing and evaluating mechanisms that allows improve water physical, chemical and microbiological conditions, used for human consumption in these regions. This paper describes the operation, the energy balance, the construction and tests of a prototype of single-slope solar distiller used to determine the influence of temperatures, thickness of condenser and water level inside the collector on thermal efficiency of the process of water distillation. The prototype was tested on non-controlled environmental conditions at the city of Bucaramanga, measuring temperature, solar radiation and volume of distilled water. The trend lines gotten between volume of water distilled as a function of the incident solar radiation, the temperature difference between water and inner air in the distiller and between air and condenser on real operation condition, allowed the identification of optimal design parameters. After analyzing the results, it was observed a linear dependence between solar radiation and volume of water distilled, in addition to a dependence to the distilled volume to the difference of water temperatures, inner air and the condenser inside the distiller.