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The potential of harakeke fibre as reinforcement in polymer matrix composites including modelling of long harakeke fibre composite strength
Abstract
Mechanical properties of aligned long harakeke fibre reinforced epoxy with different fibre contents were evaluated. Addition of fibre was found to enhance tensile properties of epoxy; tensile strength and Young's modulus increased with increasing content of harakeke fibre up to 223 MPa at a fibre content of 55 wt% and 17 GPa at a fibre content of 63 wt%, respectively. The flexural strength and flexural modulus increased to a maximum of 223 MPa and 14 GPa, respectively, as the fibre content increased up to 49 wt% with no further increase with increased fibre content. The Rule of Mixtures based model for estimating tensile strength of aligned long fibre composites was also developed assuming composite failure occurred as a consequence of the fracture of the lowest failure strain fibres taking account porosity of composites. The model was shown to have good accuracy for predicting the strength of aligned long natural fibre composites.
Type
Journal Article
Type of thesis
Series
Citation
Le, T. M., & Pickering, K. L. (2015). The potential of harakeke fibre as reinforcement in polymer matrix composites including modelling of long harakeke fibre composite strength. Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing, 76, 44–53. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.compositesa.2015.05.005
Date
2015-05-30
Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
Degree
Supervisors
Rights
This is an authors accepted manuscript of an article published in the journal: Composites Part A: Applied Science and Manufacturing. © 2015 Elsevier.