Abstract
Temperature and moisture can cause degradation to the impact properties of plant fiber-based composites owing to their complex chemical composition and multi-layer microstructure. This study focused on experimental characterization of the effect of important influencing factors, including manufacturing process temperature, exposure temperature, and water absorption, on the impact damage threshold and damage mechanisms of flax fiber reinforced composites. Firstly, serious reduction on the impact damage threshold and damage resistance was observed, this indicated excessive temperature can cause chemical decomposition and structural damage to flax fiber. It was also shown that a moderate high temperature resulted in lower impact damage threshold. Moreover, a small amount of water absorption could slightly improve the damage threshold load and the damage resistance. However, more water uptake caused severe degradation on the composite interface and structural damage of flax fiber, which reduced the impact performance of flax fiber reinforced composites.
Highlights
In recent years, plant fibers have been utilized as reinforcements to replace asbestos and fiberglass in composites for various applications due to their distinctive characteristics, such as sustainability, biodegradability, abundance, cost savings, lower density, high specific strength, modulus, acoustic absorption, and good energy absorption properties [1,2,3]
This study aims to investigate the effect of manufacturing process temperature, environment temperature, and water absorption on the low-velocity impact response and damage mechanisms of flax fiber reinforced epoxy plastic (FFRP)
The variations of chemical components of flax fiber treated at temperatures of 120, 140, 160, 180, The
Summary
Plant fibers have been utilized as reinforcements to replace asbestos and fiberglass in composites for various applications due to their distinctive characteristics, such as sustainability, biodegradability, abundance, cost savings, lower density, high specific strength, modulus, acoustic absorption, and good energy absorption properties [1,2,3]. The occurrence of impact damage during the service life of fiber reinforced plastic composites is unavoidable and is becoming one of the most important aspects that inhibits their widespread use in industry [4,5]. Among a number of basic mechanical failure modes happening in fiber reinforced composites during impact events, matrix cracking and delamination are the most common damage mechanisms, and are defined as the initial damages of synthetic fiber-based composites. These damages are barely visible to the naked eye but can result in a serious decline in structural stiffness, stability, and load-carrying capability. Damage threshold load (DTL) is Materials 2019, 12, 453; doi:10.3390/ma12030453 www.mdpi.com/journal/materials
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