Time-dependent behavior of flax/starch composites

Modeling of nonlinear viscoelasticity-viscoplasticity of bio-based polymer composites

“…Two different values of relative humidity were examined, namely 34 and 61%, for at least 2e3 weeks, as it is mentioned in Ref. [3]. Given that at a value of RH equal to 61% the effect of moisture is more intense, the experimental data of matrix and the composite, after conditioning at this RH value were selected for simulation.…”

“…The flax/starch materials were experimentally studied in Ref. [3], under tensile monotonic loading and creep recovery testing. The tensile stress-strain curves of neat polymer and it's composite at a strain rate equal to 0.83 10 À3 s À1 are shown in Fig.…”

“…[3], given that no stress-relaxation experiments were available, a different procedure has been followed. In order to estimate parameters k, g, S, the creep data of these materials at low stress levels of 2 and 4 MPa presented in Refs.…”

“…To this trend, a lot of works have been focused on the preparation and study of biodegradable polymers based composites and nanocomposites [1,2]. On the other hand, it has been postulated that reinforcement with natural fibers, such as flax, hemp, kenaf is a convenient choice to achieve an acceptable enhancement of mechanical properties [3]. Especially wood polymer composites (WPC), although not as popular as composites with inorganic fillers, offer biodegradable materials, if a wood-flour is combined with a biodegradable polymer [4].…”

“…[3]. A detailed experimental study has been performed in terms of tensile experiments and tensile multiple step creep-recovery tests, for the matrix and the composite materials, with varying the relative humidity.…”