Abstract
This work addresses mechanical characterization in tension of woven flax fabric reinforced in situ polymerized poly(butylene terephthalate) composites, produced by the RTM technique. A brief description of the developed RTM set-up is made and the composite manufacturing details are presented. A morphological analysis of the mechanically characterized materials by Scanning Electronic Microscopy (SEM) is also made. The produced neat polymer (pCBT) showed a brittle behavior and mechanical properties lower than those found in the literature. Its reinforcement with woven flax fabric resulted in an enhancement of both tensile strength and stiffness. The obtained results can be significantly improved by the polymer modifying chemically , optimizing the control of the processing parameters, and subjecting flax fibers to a surface treatment compatible with the CBT 160 resin.
Highlights
Thermoplastic composites offer some interesting advantages over thermosets counterparts, such as higher toughness and impact resistance, recyclability, and faster production cycles
The common thermoplastic processing techniques do not allow the combination of engineering or high performance thermoplastics with vegetal fibers due to its high melting temperature
The presence of microcracks is reported by other researchers for glass fiber reinforcements [5]
Summary
Thermoplastic composites offer some interesting advantages over thermosets counterparts, such as higher toughness and impact resistance, recyclability, and faster production cycles. The thermoplastic matrix selection needs, to take into account the vegetal fibers low thermal resistance and the processing technique that will be used. The common thermoplastic processing techniques do not allow the combination of engineering or high performance thermoplastics with vegetal fibers due to its high melting temperature. Reactive processing of thermoplastics is a recent technique, currently in development and optimization, which makes use of mono- or oligomeric precursors that, after heated and mixed with an activator system, impregnate the fibers and polymerize in-situ to form the desired matrix. Due to its low molecular weight the precursors have extremely low melt viscosity (in order of mPa.s) allowing appropriate impregnation of short and continuous reinforcement at lower processing pressures and moderate temperatures (180 to 250∘C for PA12 and PBT).
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