Effects of different relative humidities on flax fibers prior to manufacturing their composites based on the shear response

The moisture absorption behavior of flax fiber-reinforced epoxy composites is deliberated to be a serious issue. This property restricts their usage as outdoor engineering structures. Therefore, this study provides an investigation of moisture in flax fibers on the performance of the flax/epoxy comp...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: Moudood, Abdul, Rahman, Anisur, Öchsner, Andreas, Islam, Md Mainul, Ali, Mohammad Yeakub, Francucci, Gaston Martin
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2020
País:Argentina
Institución:Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
Repositorio:CONICET Digital (CONICET)
Idioma:inglés
OAI Identifier:oai:ri.conicet.gov.ar:11336/141672
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/11336/141672
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Flax
Bio COmposites
Humidity
Degradation
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/2.5
https://purl.org/becyt/ford/2
Descripción
Sumario:The moisture absorption behavior of flax fiber-reinforced epoxy composites is deliberated to be a serious issue. This property restricts their usage as outdoor engineering structures. Therefore, this study provides an investigation of moisture in flax fibers on the performance of the flax/epoxy composite materials based on their shear responses. The ±45° aligned flax fibers exposed to different relative humidities (RH) and the vacuum infusion process was used to manufacture the composite specimens. The optimum shear strength (40.25 ± 0.75 MPa) was found for the composites manufactured with 35% RH-conditioned flax fibers, but the shear modulus was reduced consistently with increasing RH values. Although shear strength was increased because of fiber swelling with increased moisture absorption rate until 35% RH environments with good microstructures, nonetheless, strength and modulus both started to decrease after this range. A very poor microstructure has been affirmed by the SEM images of the composite samples conditioned at 90% RH environments.