Abstract
Recently, a composite material made from natural fibers and biodegradable resin, “green composite,” is attracting attention as an alternative composite material for the replacement of glass fiber-reinforced plastics. Plant-based natural fibers such as kenaf and flax have already been used as composite reinforcement materials because they are more environmentally friendly and costless fibers than artificial fibers. A problem of using natural fibers is the fiber waviness, which affects the tensile properties. Fiber waviness is fluctuation in the fiber orientation that is inherent in the sliver morphology of plant-based natural fibers. This study was conducted to clarify the relation between quantified parameters of fiber waviness and a composite’s tensile strength. First, the fiber orientation angles on a flax-sliver-reinforced composite were measured. Then the angle distribution was quantified through spatial autocorrelation analysis methods: Local Moran’sIand Local Geary’sc. Finally, the relation between the resultant tensile strength and quantified parameters was discussed.
Highlights
Strong demand for the use of composite materials is increasing today because high strength and stiffness, as well as low density, are needed to reduce energy consumption in aviation and automotive transport industries
The use of artificial fiber-reinforced composite materials, such as glass fiberreinforced plastics (GFRP) and carbon fiber-reinforced plastics (CFRP), is effective to meet these demands, but disposal difficulties that arise after their use have surfaced as an environmental problem
Plant-based natural fibers are often supplied as long fibers called “slivers.” When this form is successfully prepared with resin, slivers can be applied as a semifinished composite material in prepregs [5, 6]
Summary
Strong demand for the use of composite materials is increasing today because high strength and stiffness, as well as low density, are needed to reduce energy consumption in aviation and automotive transport industries. One of the problems in preparing slivers is their fiber waviness, which is fluctuation in the fiber orientation inherent in plant-based natural fibers as well as synthetic fibers. Such waviness often engenders a decrease in the mechanical properties of the composites. Karami and Garnich [8] used a finite element micromechanical model to predict the effects of periodic and localized fiber waviness on carbon fiber reinforcement. In these papers, the fiber waviness was assumed as a deterministic shape such as a sine curve. In order to take the stochastic wavy effect of sliver into account, Ren et al [9, 10] quantified the fibre orientation fluctuation in curaua-sliver- and flax-sliver-reinforced composite through one-dimensional and two-dimensional
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