Abstract
The ever-increasing demand for environmentally friendly biocomposites for use in various engineering applications requires a strong understanding of these materials properties, especially in automotive applications. This study focused on investigating how the stacking sequence and fibre orientation impacts the damping properties of hybrid flax/carbon fibre-reinforced composites. Different hybrid carbon fibre/flax fibre-reinforced composites using epoxy resin as the matrix were manufactured using vacuum-assisted resin infusion moulding technique. Each composite material was then tested for tensile properties using a universal testing machine, and the damping experiment was conducted using an impulse hammer and a Laser Doppler Vibrometer. The tensile study found out that adding a flax layer to the external layers of carbon fibre laminate reduced Young’s modulus by 28% for one layer and 45% for two layers. It was noted that when the fibre orientation of the internal layer of [C/F2/C]s was replaced with two ±45° layers, this had a very little effect on Young’s modulus but reduced the ultimate tensile strength by 61%. This experimental study also showed that the most important layer when it comes to damping properties is the external layers. By adding an external flax layer into an epoxy/carbon fibre-reinforced composite considerably enhanced its damping ratio by 53.6% and by adding two layers increased it by 94%. The results indicated a high potential for the automotive semi-structural applications to improve damping properties of the vehicle.
Highlights
The need for faster and more lightweight materials is constantly growing, and due to technological advances in recent years, there are more lightweighting options today
It was noted that when the fibre orientation of the internal layer of [C/F2/C]s was replaced with two ±45◦ layers, this had a very little effect on Young’s modulus but reduced the ultimate tensile strength by 61%
This study analysed the effects of varying stacking sequence and fibre orientation on hybrid carbon fibre/flax biocomposites
Summary
The need for faster and more lightweight materials is constantly growing, and due to technological advances in recent years, there are more lightweighting options today. On the other hand, are known to have a much lower tensile strength than carbon fibre [6,7,8] but have much higher damping properties [5,9] This fact leads on to the idea of hybridisation, where natural flax fibres can be combined with carbon fibres to produce novel hybrid composites [10]. The aim of this study, was to investigate how stacking sequence and fibre orientation impacts on the damping properties of hybrid epoxy/flax fibre/carbon fibre-reinforced composites suitable for producing semi-structural energy components or could be used in the automotive industry. This study investigated lightweight materials with lower cost and improved sustainability by using natural flax fibres and epoxy resins, alongside carbon fibre to produce novel hybrid composites
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