Search results for "flax"
showing 10 items of 60 documents
Strength distribution of elementary flax fibres
2005
Abstract Flax fibres, along with a number of other natural fibres, are being considered as an environmentally friendly alternative of synthetic fibres in fibre-reinforced polymer composites. A common feature of natural fibres is a much higher variability of mechanical properties. This necessitates study of the flax fibre strength distribution and efficient experimental methods for its determination. Elementary flax fibres of different gauge lengths are tested by single fibre tension in order to obtain the stress–strain response and strength and failure strain distributions. The applicability of single fibre fragmentation test for flax fibre failure strain and strength characterization is co…
Mechanical Behaviour of a Green Sandwich Made of Flax Reinforced Polymer Facings and Cork Core
2015
Abstract This work investigates the flexural behavior of a composite sandwich made of flax fibers reinforced skin facings and an agglomerated cork core, to be employed as an eco-friendly solution for the making of structural components of small sailing boats. An experimental mechanical characterization of the strength and stiffness flexural behavior of the proposed sandwich is carried out, providing a comparison of performances from three implemented assembling techniques: hand-lay-up, vacuum bagging and resin infusion. Sandwich beams have been tested under three point bending (TPB) at various span lengths. A procedure is also proposed and implemented to consider the potential influence of …
Design of Gelatin Pouches for the Preservation of Flaxseed Oil during Storage
2020
Flaxseed oil (FO) is composed mainly of polyunsaturated fatty acids that are very sensitive to oxidation induced by oxygen, temperature, and light. To overcome this problem, gelatin-based films containing glucose are crosslinked via the Maillard reaction (MR) at 120 °
Properties evolution of flax/epoxy composites under fatigue loading
2014
International audience; The tension-tension fatigue behaviour of flax fibre reinforced epoxy matrix composites have been investigated for specimens having [0]12, [90]12, [0/90]3S and [±45]3S lay-ups. The Probabilized Stress-Number of cycles (P-S-N) curves have been determined for each laminate type. The measured stress and strain data allowed to quantify the evolution of the mechanical properties, i.e. stiffness, damping and permanent strain as a function of imposed cycles. Especially, the stiffening phenomenon of flax reinforcements oriented parallel to the loading direction has been confirmed. However, due to the competition between damage development and the fibre stiffening, the increas…
Model of the mechanical response of short flax fiber reinforced polymer matrix composites
2011
Abstract Natural-fiber-reinforced short-fiber composites are finding more applications lately, therefore there is a need for estimation of the mechanical properties of such composites based on the properties of the constituents. The fibers themselves also possess complicated internal structure, resulting in anisotropy of their properties. Taking into account the internal structure of bast fiber, we evaluate the elastic properties of a composite unit cell, consisting of a fiber of average length and matrix according to the fiber volume fraction in the composite. The unit cell properties are used to estimate the stiffness of a misaligned short-fiber composite by means of orientation averaging…
Durability of flax-basalt hybrid composites for marine applications
2015
The aim of the present work is to evaluate the influence of external layers of mat basalt on the durability behaviour and performances of flax/epoxy laminates. To this scope, long-term aging tests were performed to evaluate the durability of the two different laminates in critical environmental conditions. In particular, Flax composites were constituted by ten layers of bidirectional flax fabric whereas hybrid laminates (i.e. Flax-Basalt) were produced by replacing four external layers of bidirectional flax with four layers of basalt mat. Both laminates had a total average thickness equal to 3 mm. The samples were exposed to critical environmental conditions following the ASTM B 117 standar…
Flax–Glass Fiber Reinforced Hybrid Composites Exposed to a Salt-Fog/Dry Cycle: A Simplified Approach to Predict Their Performance Recovery
2023
Despite natural fibers gaining significant attention in recent decades, their limited performance and poor durability under humid environments cannot allow them to fully replace their synthetic counterparts as reinforcement for structural composites. In such a context, this paper aims to investigate how exposure to a humid/dry cycle affects the mechanical response of epoxy laminates reinforced with flax and glass fibers. In particular, the main goal is to assess the performance evolution of a glass–flax hybridized stacking sequence in comparison with the full glass and flax fiber reinforced composites. To this end, the investigated composites were first exposed to salt-fog for 15 or 30 days…
Failure mechanisms of flax/epoxy laminates with open hole: a failure map
2017
Aim of this paper is the investigation of the pin/hole contact stress and failure mechanisms of flax/epoxy composite laminates underwent to tensile bearing tests. In particular, the maximum loads and failure modes are evaluated at varying joint geometry. In order to optimize the use of composite materials in structural applications, an experimental failure map, identifying main failure modes of mechanically fastened joints, is obtained by evaluating failure modes (i.e., net tension, shear out, cleavage and bearing) as a function of the pin diameter and the position of the hole from the free edge of the laminate. Main goal of this paper is give a simple experimental methodology to support th…
Effect of sodium bicarbonate treatment on mechanical properties of flax-reinforced epoxy composite materials
2017
This paper deals with the evaluation of the effect of an eco-friendly and cost-effective surface treatment based on the use of sodium bicarbonate on the mechanical properties of flax-reinforced epoxy composites. To this aim, unidirectional fabrics were soaked for five days in 5 and 10% in weight of sodium bicarbonate solution at 25℃. Quasi-static and dynamic mechanical tests were performed and the fracture surfaces of the composites were analyzed through scanning electron microscopy. Results evidenced that this treatment improves the fiber–matrix adhesion thus increasing the performances of the composites. Treating the fabrics with 10% w/w of bicarbonate solution leads to improvements of ∼…
Strength and Damage of Elementary Flax Fibers Extracted from Tow and Long Line Flax
2009
Flax fibers possess high specific strength and stiffness, and thus are competitive in terms of mechanical properties with traditional reinforcing fibers used in polymer-matrix composite materials. For environmental and economical benefit, it would be preferable to apply nontextile grade fibers in composites provided their mechanical characteristics are acceptable. Elementary fibers have been extracted from long line flax, used as high-quality raw material for textile industry, and flax tow, and their strength distribution and damage level determined. It is shown that the elementary flax fibers coming from short flax fiber are not inferior to those of textile-quality flax in terms of streng…