COMPARISON OF FLAX FIBER AND SISAL FIBER REINFORCED COMPOSITES FOR STRUCTURAL APPLICATIONS

摘要

With the increasing global energy crisis and ecological risks, natural fibers have attracted increasing research interests owing to their potential of serving as alternatives to synthetic materials in reinforced plastics. By using natural fibers, an important environmental advantage is created as renewable resources are used instead of petroleum-based materials. Recently, these "green" or "biobased" composite materials have been introduced in the automotive, housing, construction, marine, and transportation industries. The current study investigates the viability of using flax fiber (bast type) and sisal (leaf type) for polymer reinforcement in structural composite applications. Both fiber types exhibit good tensile strength; however flax is lower in density while sisal has a higher elongation at failure. Composites of unidirectional flax fiber/epoxy and random chop sisal/epoxy were processed using vacuum assisted resin transfer molding (VARTM) and tested for flexural properties. Testing revealed natural fiber/epoxy composites had significantly lower specific flexural strength and modulus than common E-glass/epoxy composites.