Paper Title :Mechanical Characterization of A Hybrid Composite Sandwich Structure Made of Woven Carbon/Flax Fibers

Author :Zainab Al-Hajaj, Habiba Bougherara, Zouheir Fawaz

Article Citation :Zainab Al-Hajaj ,Habiba Bougherara ,Zouheir Fawaz , (2018 ) " Mechanical Characterization of A Hybrid Composite Sandwich Structure Made of Woven Carbon/Flax Fibers " , International Journal of Mechanical and Production Engineering (IJMPE) , pp. 40-45, Volume-6,Issue-2

Abstract : In recent years, there has been a growing interest toward the use of natural fibre composites for structural applications. Previous studies have been found that natural fibre exhibited comparable specific mechanical properties to glass fibers. However, the main drawbacks of flax fibre are high water absorption, variability in mechanical properties, and poor adhesion to various matrices. Combining natural fibre with synthetic fibre will potentially improve the overall properties of flax fibers. In this work, woven carbon/flax/epoxy hybrid composites were manufactured with two flax fibre configurations, namely unidirectional [0CF2/0F6]s and angle-ply [0CF2/±45F6]s. The manufactured specimens were characterized using water absorption, tensile, compression, flexural, Rockwell hardness, and torsion tests. The findings of this study showed significant improvement resulting in less water absorption to neat flax composite (17% for neat [0F8]s vs 4.84% for [0CF2/0F6]s, and 8.32% for [0CF2/±45F6]s) . In addition, the compression, tensile, hardness, and torsion properties of the hybrid composite specimens were improved by more than 50% in average compared to those of pure flax/epoxy composite specimens. Keywords- Natural fibre composites, Hybrid composites, Mechanical properties, Water absorption, Woven carbon/flax/epoxy composite.

Type : Research paper

Published : Volume-6,Issue-2

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