Abstract
The present paper deals with the investigation of quasi-static and dynamic mechanical response of epoxy-based composites reinforced with flax and/or jute plain weave fabrics. In order to evaluate the influence of the stacking sequence, two monolithic laminates reinforced with flax or jute fibers and two hybrid flax/jute laminates were manufactured through the vacuum infusion technique. Furthermore, an eco-friendly and cost-effective surface treatment based on fiber soaking in a sodium bicarbonate solution was employed to improve the fiber-matrix adhesion. The mechanical characterization (by means of quasi-static flexural, dynamic mechanical thermal analysis and Charpy impact tests) allowed to evidence that the sodium bicarbonate treatment leads to noticeable improvement of the mechanical performances of flax reinforced composites, whereas jute composites experience a slight decrease of their mechanical properties. Overall, the hybridization allows to achieve intermediate mechanical properties among those of monolithic composites. Furthermore, the coupled action of hybridization and surface treatment does not lead to a beneficial and reliable effect on the mechanical response of the resulting composites.
Highlights
The production of composite materials from bio sources have gained increased interest over the last decades with the aim to reduce the environmental pollution and to create a closed loop for products’ lifecycle [1,2]
Two twill weave woven fabrics were used in the manufacturing of the laminates: i.e., jute, supplied by Composites Evolution (Chesterfield, UK), and flax supplied by Lineo (Valliquerville, France), having areal weight of 400 g/m2 and 320 g/m2, respectively
Are characterized by a feeble higher strength and stiffness compared to jute based ones (Jute-T and J-Hybrid-T samples). These results indicate that the hybridization does not bring benefits if the vegetable fibers are treated in sodium bicarbonate solution
Summary
The production of composite materials from bio sources have gained increased interest over the last decades with the aim to reduce the environmental pollution and to create a closed loop for products’ lifecycle [1,2]. Thanks to the results achieved in this first paper, other researchers focused their attention during the last years on the effect of this new method on the adhesion between epoxy and polyester matrices with coir fibers [18,19], epoxy with flax fibers [20], and poly-lactic acid with sisal fibers [21], confirming the suitability and versatility of the proposed treatment Another approach widely used to properly tailor the mechanical and physical properties of natural fiber reinforced composites is the hybridization of these natural fibers with stronger and more aging resistant synthetic fibers such as glass [22,23,24,25] carbon [26,27,28,29,30,31,32] and Kevlar [33,34] or mineral fibers, such as basalt [35,36,37,38,39,40]. A promising eco-friendly treatment was employed with the aim of improving the mechanical properties of the composites, extending their use to a wide range of applications
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