Abstract:In recent years there has been a resurgence of interest in the usage of natural fiber reinforced composites in more advanced structural applications. As a result, the need for improving their mechanical properties, as well as service life modeling and predictions have arisen. In this study effect of alkaline treatment of flax fiber as well as addition of 1% acrylic resin to vinyl ester on mechanical properties and long-term creep behavior of flax/vinyl ester composites was investigated. To perform the alkaline treatment, fibers were immersed into 1500 mL of 10 g/L sodium hydroxide/ethanol solution at 78˝C for 2 h. Findings revealed that alkaline treatment was successful in increasing interlaminar shear, tensile and flexural strength of the composite but decreased the tensile and flexural modulus by 10%. Addition of acrylic resin to the vinyl ester resin improved all mechanical properties except the flexural modulus which was decreased by 5%. In order to evaluate the long-term behavior, creep compliance master curves were generated using the time-temperature superposition principle. Results suggests that fiber and matrix treatments delay the creep response and slows the process of creep in flax/vinyl ester composites in the steady state region, respectively.
Carbon fiber composite frames were first used in Tour de France in 1986. With recent growth in research and development of composite frames, carbon fiber composites have become more popular in bicycle industry where lightweight and high stiffness are of upmost importance. Unfortunately, carbon fiber is expensive and has low impact toughness. One method of overcoming this shortcoming is to hybridize carbon fiber with natural fibers such as flax. The benefit of using hybrid composites is that the advantages of one type of fiber can overcome the disadvantages of the other type of fiber. As a result, a balance in cost, performance, and sustainability could be achieved through proper composite material design. In this study, carbon fiber was hybridized with flax fiber in an effort to manufacture a bicycle frame with the highperformance characteristics of carbon fiber and low cost and renewability of flax fiber. In addition, vibration damping properties of flax fiber will result in a more comfortable ride. The results of mechanical tests of the frame material revealed that the manufactured frame possess similar or higher stiffness and strength as commercially available carbon, titanium, and aluminum frames while exhibiting superior vibration damping properties. All these were achieved with a lower cost compared to carbon composite frames while maintaining 40% biocontent.
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