Search results for "natural materials"
showing 10 items of 16 documents
An investigation into the fracture behaviour of honeycombs with density gradients
2020
International audience; In this study we perform an experimental and computational investigation about the fracture behaviour of polymer honeycombs presenting gradients in terms of lattice density. Such lattice relative density variations are introduced with the aim of mimicking the micro-morphology encountered in some natural materials, such as several kinds of woods, which seems related to the ability of the corresponding macro-material to delay the propagation of fracture under certain conditions. Starting from the conclusions of previous computational analyses, we perform a few experimental tensile tests on ABS model honeycombs obtained by additive manufacturing, with the aim of getting…
Can biological structures be natural and sustainable capsules?
2015
Flavor and fragrance molecules are used in many industrial fields such as food, cosmetics, tissues, pharmacy, agriculture (pheromones) etc. As most actives have a specific target and are fragile molecules, encapsulation processes have been developed for their use. These technologies are efficient to avoid loss of actives, dissemination out of the target and subsequent pollution, and to protect molecules up to their target. Several processes have been developed responding to the numerous situations encountered (e.g., protection against air, temperature, light, pH; masking or revealing sensorial properties of the molecule; release during the process, in the plate, in the mouth, etc.). However…
The cork viewed from the inside
2015
International audience; Cork is the natural material stripped from the outer bark of cork oak. It is still the most used stopper to seal wine bottles and to preserve wine during storage. Cork stoppers are sorted in different classes according to apparent defects, named lenticels, which can be related to the cork macroporosity. The more lenticels there are, the worst cork quality is. The present work aims at investigating defects analysis of cork stoppers from two classes by comparing images recorded by digital photography and neutron imaging. Surface analysis of defects obtained from photography leads to more surface defects in class 4 (6.7%) than in class 0 (4.1%). Neutron radiography and …
The possibilities of using low-cost fibrous natural materials as sorbents for removing aliphatic hydrocarbons (C6-C15) from an aqueous solution
2020
Sorption of oil-related products (including mainly the propellants) is the basic process that coun-teracts spreading these types of pollution into the environment. Plenty of synthetic substances (including multi-component petroleum products) must be removed both from the fresh and ground-water. The aim of this study was to compare the possibilities of using natural fibrous materials (also weed or waste materials): broadleaf cattail (Typha latifolia L.) seeds, peat and coconut fiber as sorbents of aliphatic hydrocarbons from an aqueous solution. In order to increase sorptive capacity, tested materials were mercerized in hot (80°C) NaOH for sorption properties improvement. The removal of alip…
Glass-basalt/epoxy hybrid composites for marine applications
2011
Abstract The aim of this work is to evaluate the influence of uniaxial basalt fabric layers on the mechanical performances of a glass mat/epoxy composite used for marine applications. Polymer composites, reinforced by glass mat (GFRP), and hybrid ones, reinforced by glass mat and unidirectional basalt fabric, have been produced by vacuum bagging technique. Three points bending and tensile tests have been carried out in order to evaluate the effect of number and position of basalt layers on the mechanical properties of the investigated structures. The experimental tests have showed that the presence of two external layers of basalt involves the highest increase in mechanical properties of hy…
Controlling Thermal Flows through Natural Materials in Building Construction Sector
2019
Nowadays, the attention about the building sustainability is increasingly emerging, because of the major responsibility of the building field on the environmental degradation: both in terms of energy consumption from non-renewable sources and the raw materials impoverishment. In addition, the level of comfort required by users is growing and the thermal insulation of buildings becomes the key element for the reduction of energy consumption and CO2 emissions, both in the case of new construction and of the existing ones. The heat load of a building depends on the presence of insulating material which defines the performance of the building envelope. The main purpose of this work is both to i…
Sapropel as a Binder: Properties and Application Possibilities for Composite Materials
2015
Recent development trends largely look for possibilities of a wider use of natural materials and local resources. In this perspective, the use of organic rich lake sediment - sapropel - as a binding material in line with other environmentally friendly filling materials can be considered as a challenge. Sapropel itself is a valuable resource with multiple areas of application, for example, medicine, veterinary, agriculture, livestock farming, balneology, cosmetic applications, construction, and its application options have been widely studied in the 20th century in the Baltic countries, Ukraine and Russia. Birch wood fibre and sanding dust, hemp shives, 'Aerosil' are used as a filler and thr…
Composite Building Materials: Thermal and Mechanical Performances of Samples Realized with Hay and Natural Resins
2017
Unidad de excelencia María de Maeztu MdM-2015-0552 Recent years have seen an increasing public interest in issues related to energy saving and environmental pollution reduction in the building sector. As a result, many directives have been issued, the most important being the Directive 2010/31/EU (EPBD Recast) on the energy performance of buildings, which requires that "Member States shall ensure that by 31 December 2020 all new buildings are nearly zero-energy buildings". This goal can be obtained not only by reducing energy demand for heating and cooling, but also, for example, by improving building envelope performances. In this work, a first analysis of the thermal and structural behavi…
Effect of areal weight and chemical treatment on the mechanical properties of bidirectional flax fabrics reinforced composites
2010
Abstract In this paper several bidirectional flax fibers, usually used to made curtains, were employed as reinforcement of an epoxy matrix. Four different laminates were made by a vacuum bagging process, with varying both the areal weight and the treatment of the fabric. These structures were mechanically investigated carrying out both tensile and three point flexural tests. In order to evaluate the effect of the identified variables on the mechanical parameters (i.e. Young modulus and maximum stress) a statistical analysis was performed. Finally, by comparing the flax composite with a glass one, the convenience of the replacement of glass fiber was investigated in term of cost, weight and …
Bending test for capturing the vivid behavior of giant reeds, returned through a proper fractional visco-elastic model
2015
Abstract This paper presents results of experimental investigations made to evaluate the vivid behavior of giant reed Arundo donax. In particular, attention was paid to the relationship between visco-elastic properties and moisture content, which is widely recognized as one of the key factor that influences the mechanical properties of all wood-based materials. To this aim, after a controlled drying treatment on samples of reed, stress relaxation tests in three point bending configuration were performed to evaluate the effects of moisture content on visco-elastic behavior of the giant reed. Further, the novel aspect of this paper is that of using an Euler–Bernoulli model embedded with an ad…