Hollow canola-wood thermoset composites from concept to completion: fabrication, performance, failure and reliability analysis

Abstract

This study aims to reinforce wood particle composite structures with novel lightweight hollow Topas canola fibres (Brassica napus L.). The feasibility of methyl ethyl ketone peroxide (MEKP)-cured hybrid composite structures of canola and wood biomass is demonstrated in the current study. By employing a facile fabrication technique under ambient conditions, different hybrid canola composite structures are fabricated with randomly distributed fibre polymer reinforcements and synthetic resin matrix. Hybridization process involves the incorporation of hollow canola fibres and wood biomass to yield better mechanical performance including breaking strength, flexural rigidity, and strength to weight ratio. The produced hybrid composites can outperform pristine heavyweight wood composites, exhibiting superior flexural strength up to 6.4 (± 2.5) Pa-m4 of flexural rigidity and 728.35 (± 242) N of breaking load with the extra feature of lower wood content. The hybrid composite structure exhibited a modulus of elasticity up to 8.76 GPa exhibiting ~ 6% higher stiffness than the pristine wood composites. Also, the diameter (84.30 ± 38.04 μm) of the canola fibres is coarse enough for composite fabrication. This confirms the effective contribution of canola fibres to the flexural properties of hybrid composite structures. Further, the two-parameter Weibull mathematical model is applied for failure (R2 ≥ 0.92) and reliability (R2 ≥ 0.93) analysis. The constructed probability distribution curves predict probabilistic composite failures against ranges of bending deflection. The intrinsic hollow interior of the novel canola fibre opens new doors for self-healing natural fibre-based composite fabrication. Such lightweight composite structures can find promising applications in technical textiles, including the interior panels of automotive, aerospace, furniture, and the construction industry.