Influence of friction spun yarn and thermally bonded roving structures on the mechanical properties of Flax/Polypropylene composites

Abstract

The main objective of this work is to study the effect of composite architecture on the mechanical properties of flax reinforced polypropylene (PP) composites. In this context, two different hybrid yarn structures using flax and polypropylene (PP) fibres have been produced; one, through the friction spinning method and the other through thermal bonding of blended roving. The friction spun yarn (FSY) has a core-sheath type of yarn structure, whereas the thermally bonded roving (TBR) has a blended flax/ PP distribution in its structure. The flax content in both yarn structures is varied at 40 wt. %, 50 wt. % and 60 wt. %, respectively. Further, these hybrid yarns are consolidated to fabricate unidirectional composite samples and the resultant composites are tested accordingly. It is observed that the tensile and flexural strengths of all composite specimens increase with increasing flax content. While the impact strength of FSY-compressed composite decreases with increasing flax content and in case of TBR-compressed composite, it increases with increasing flax content. At constant flax content, the TBR-compressed composites demonstrate better tensile, flexural and impact properties than FSY-compressed composites.