Research on mechanical properties and durability of flax/glass fiber bio-hybrid FRP composites laminates

In recent years, natural fiber as a green and renewable resources have attracted much attention to be used as reinforcement in composites. The aim of this work is to assess mechanical properties and durability in harsh environments of epoxy-based flax and glass bio-hybrid fiber reinforced plastics (bio-HFRP) composites. With the same fiber mixing ratio, the flexural and dynamic mechanical properties of the bio-HFRP composites were studied by changing the stacking order. The pure flax FRP and bio-HFRP composites were exposed to hygmthermal at 20 degrees C, 40 degrees C, and 60 degrees C for 28 days, respectively. The water absorption and diffusion capacity, the bending and shear properties were analyzed. Compared with the pure flax FRP, the flexural strength of G(2)F(2)s group sample was increased by 2.2 times. When exposed to the hygmthermal environment, flexural strength loss rate of the G(2)F(2)s group sample is only reduced by 4.35%, 9.00% and 11.51%, and its flexural modulus decreases 15.48%, 15.90% and 23.89%. It shown that the addition of glass fiber effectively improves the water absorption of flax fiber composites. Hybridization of flax fibers with glass fibers was a practical approach to enhance FRP laminates in hygrothermal environmental conditions after synthesizing the stacking sequence, mechanical properties and aging resistance.

Automated summary

This study assessed the mechanical properties and durability of flax and glass bio-hybrid fiber reinforced plastics (bio-HFRP) composites in harsh environments. It was found that the addition of glass fiber effectively improved the water absorption of flax fiber composites, resulting in increased flexural strength and decreased flexural modulus.