Influence of accelerated ageing on the physico-mechanical properties of alkali-treated industrial hemp fibre reinforced poly(lactic acid) (PLA) composites

Abstract

Abstract. In this study, 30 wt% aligned untreated long hemp fibre/PLA (AUL) and aligned alkali treated long hemp fibre/PLA (AAL) composites were produced by film stacking and subjected to accelerated ageing environment. Accelerated ageing was carried out with an accelerated ageing chamber using UV-irradiation and water spray at 50 °C for four different time intervals (250, 500, 750 and 1000 hrs). After accelerated ageing, tensile strength (TS), flexural strength, Young's modulus (YM), flexural modulus and mode I fracture toughness (K Ic ) were found to decrease and impact strength (IS) was found to increase for both AUL and AAL composites. AUL composites had greatest overall reduction in mechanical properties than that for AAL composites upon exposure to accelerated ageing environment. FTIR analysis and crystallinity contents of the accelerated aged composites support the results of the deterioration of mechanical properties upon exposure to accelerated ageing environment.

Physical and mechanical properties of PLA, and their functions in widespread applications — A comprehensive review

“…Ideally, composite materials and their structures that are intended for long term use should be tested in real time and with realistic in-service environments. Often this is not viable because the time involved would significantly delay product development and therefore, accelerated aging techniques are required [216].…”

“…Foreman and coworkers reported the influence of accelerated weather aging on the mechanical and physical properties of neat PLA and untreated long hemp fiber/PLA (AUL) and aligned alkali treated long hemp fiber/PLA (AAL) composites [216]. During accelerated weathering, measured variables can include exposure time, exposure to UV irradiation over a specific wavelength range, and exposure to moisture as number of cycles or time.…”

Long term immersion in natural seawater of Flax/PLA biocomposite

“…Life expectancy is most often evaluated by accelerated aging tests as performed on Hemp/PLA (Islam et al, 2010), on Flax/epoxy (Scida et al, 2013) and Flax/PLA (Le Duigou et al, 2009a). Although these experiments permit time saving, a comparison with natural aging is necessary if they are to be validated.…”

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“…Their development is currently mainly directed towards automotive applications but other industries are also concerned by environmental issues. One of these is the pleasure boat industry, for which durability is a major challenge, [9][10][11], but wooden boats based have proved extremely durable when properly built and used. Biocomposites are generally manufactured by injection or compressed moulding.…”