The application of the accelerated test methods on the creep analysis of flax fiber reinforced polymer composites

Abstract

Flax fiber-reinforced polymer (FFRP) composites are getting more and more popular in the construction industry as an emerging environmental-friendly material. However, their obvious creep behavior makes it a design concern for the creep development of structures made from FFRP. Though the creep behavior of the FFRP is critical for the structural design, the creep tests before structure design is not common due to the tests can take a very long time. The Time-temperature superposition principle provides a good theoretical basis for the accelerated creep tests to shorten the testing time, but the specific application of the FFRP is not clear and needs to be further developed. This study is to investigate the application methods of the Time-Temperature Superposition Principle (TTSP) theory on the FFRP material with unidirectional fibers. The three most related methods are used for constructing the creep master curves during the TTSP application to determine the most efficient application process of TTSP. The results indicate that the creep of FFRP can be effectively analyzed by the TTSP accelerated creep testing method with the proper application process.