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A new natural fiber composite made of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and short birch fibers (SBF) was developed to replace high-performance thermoplastics (Polyamide) commonly used in gears manufacturing.3-point flexural quasi-static tests were achieved on bending specimens to assess mechanical properties.Comparison between these results and those of polyamide (PA) and neat polyethylene has showed that the polyethylene reinforced with 40%wt of SBF presents tensile and flexural mechanical properties that are higher than those of the PA11 or the neat polyethylene. After static characterisation, fatigue tests were performed to determine ε-N curves and the evolution of residual strength. Then, the fatigue behavior of the studied composite has been compared with that of PA66 and of ultra-high molecular weight polyethylene (UHMWPE). It has been noticed that polyethylene reinforced with 40%wt of SBF presents a high cycle fatigue strength (HCFS) that is more important than that of PA66 and UHMWPE. Consequently, the studied composite represents a good alternative to replace Nylon in spur gears manufacturing.

A new natural fiber composite made of high density polyethylene (HDPE) and 40%wt of short birch fibers (SBF) was developed to replace polyamide (better known under its industrial name "Nylon") in spur gear manufacturing. The effect of hygrothermal aging on quasi-static and fatigue bending behaviors of this new composite has been studied in this work. Once hygrothermal aging is completed, flexural quasi-static tests have been performed on aged specimens and results compared with those obtained from unaged specimens. It has been observed that hygrothermal aging has no significant effect on flexural mechanical properties of this composite. After characterization, bending fatigue tests have been conducted on aged specimens and results have been compared with those of unaged specimens. These fatigue tests show that hygrothermal aging decreases the high cycles fatigue strength (HCFS) of this composite. The cause of this fatigue durability decrease has been investigated using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and a scanning electron microscope (SEM). These tests show that the chemical composition and thermal behavior of this composite are not affected by hygrothermal aging. On the contrary, these tests show that damage mechanisms of this composite (HDPE/40%wt of SBF) are directly affected by this type of aging.