Flax fibre quality and influence on interfacial properties of composites

Abstract

Flax fibre holds the potential to serve as an alternative to glass fibre as reinforcement in composite applications. To fully achieve this, the interaction between fibre and matrix must be improved and more consistently controlled. Only then will industry accept natural fibres as a sustainable engineering material choice. Traditionally, interfacial strength improvement has been accomplished through expensive and time consuming chemical surface modification(s). To achieve improved market potential and viability, new methods of developing composite ready flax fibre must be researched and developed through an assessment of the impact of fibre traits for unmodified fibre. Metal, fungal, bacterial, wax and glucose content were examined in this study to determine their correlative effects upon interfacial adhesion, as were fibre characteristics such as colour, density, fineness, fibreshape thickness, conductivity and pH levels. Composite performance was evaluated using fibre pullout and interfacial shear strength tests. These first attempts at correlating as-received flax fibre traits and resulting flax fibre composite properties contain the initial steps towards identifying key flax fibre characteristics that influence composite performance so that proper growth and fibre processing approaches can be developed.