Effect of Moisture in Flax Fibres on the Quality of their Composites

MOUDOOD, ABDUL; FRANCUCCI, GASTON

Mar del Plata

Simposio; SLAP 2018 - Simposio Latinoamericano de Polímeros; 2018

Moisture present in plant fibres is considered to be detrimental to the performance of composites. A drying stage is usually performed on plant fibre fabrics before the manufacturing stage, conjecturing that it would allow obtaining better composites. However, Baley et al. [1] probed that drying the fibres results in significant loss of strength and failure strain. They also performed tensile tests on unidirectional composites reinforced with dried and ?as-received flax fibres? and found that drying caused a large drop in composite strength, in a similar way to the drop found in fibre strength. They suggested that a more detailed study is necessary to optimize the conditioning of plant fibre fabrics in order to obtain the highest quality composites. Recently, Fuentes et al. [2] compared the performance of composites which were manufactured under dry and 100% RH conditions, and found a reduction in tensile and flexural strength and stiffness, which was related to the decrease of the fibre mechanical properties due to softening and possible dissolution of the interface between elementary fibres. This work provides an analysis about the effect of moisture in flax fibres on the overall quality of epoxy/flax bio-composites.