A Competitive Study of the Static and Fatigue Performance of Flax, Glass, and Flax/Glass Hybrid Composites on the Structural Example of a Light Railway Axle Tie

The most common studies in the literature are those analyzing fatigue life under cyclic loading for flax fiber-reinforced composites. A novel type of staple fiber yarn made from flax tow with almost unidirectional fiber orientation and a quasi-unidirectional fabric was developed for composite applications. Additionally, a hybrid material made of flax and glass was produced for a demonstrator component (an axle tie of a narrow-gauge railway). For such an application, the investigation of fatigue strength is of particular importance. Therefore, the fatigue behavior of flax, glass, and hybrid flax/glass composites was investigated in the high cycle fatigue range. A total of 10(6) load cycles were carried out. From about 7(3) to 8(3) loading cycles, the flax laminate was found to have higher fatigue strength than the glass fiber-reinforced composite. The hybrid materials tend to show a higher fatigue strength than the glass type from approximately 2 x 10(5) load cycles. Results based on a finite element method also demonstrate better fatigue properties at an increased number of load cycles for flax-based composites than the glass fiber-reinforced component. The flax/glass component's fatigue strength ranged between the flax values and the glass fiber-reinforced composites. Overall, the hybrid material shows significantly better static bending and impact characteristics than flax and considerably better fatigue properties than the glass fiber-reinforced composite making the hybrid material attractive for an application in an axle tie.

Automated summary

Studies show that flax fiber-reinforced composites have higher fatigue strength than glass fiber-reinforced composites. The hybrid material exhibits better performance in the high cycle fatigue range. In terms of static bending and impact characteristics, the hybrid material is significantly superior to flax and glass fiber-reinforced composites.