Flax fibres, along with a number of other natural fibres, are being considered as an environmentally friendly alternative of synthetic fibres in fibre-reinforced polymer composites. A common feature of natural fibres is a much higher variability of mechanical properties. This necessitates study of the flax fibre strength distribution and efficient experimental methods for its determination. Elementary flax fibres of different gauge lengths are tested by single fibre tension in order to obtain the stress-strain response and strength and failure strain distributions. The applicability of single fibre fragmentation test for flax fibre failure strain and strength characterization is considered. It is shown that fibre fragmentation test can be used to determine the fibre length effect on mean fibre strength and limit strain.
To prevent deformation and cracking of waterlogged archaeological wood, polyethylene glycol (PEG) as a bulk impregnation agent is commonly applied. PEG maintains the wood in a swollen state during drying. However, swelling of wood can reduce its mechanical properties. In this study, the cellular structure of oak and cell wall swelling was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) of transverse cross-sections, and the microfibril angle of oak fibers was determined by wide angle X-ray scattering (WAXS). Samples of recent European oak (Quercus robur L) impregnated with PEG (molecular weight of 600) were tested in axial tension and radial compression. Mechanical tests showed that axial tensile modulus and strength were only slightly affected by PEG, whereas radial compressive modulus and yield strength were reduced by up to 50%. This behavior can be explained by the microstructure and deformation mechanisms of the material. Microfibril angles in tensile test samples were close to zero. This implies tensile loading of cellulose microfibrils within the fiber cell walls without almost any shear in the adjacent amorphous matrix. These results are important because they can help separate the impact of PEG on mechanical properties from that of chemical degradation in archaeological artifacts, which display only small to moderate biological degradation.
A green thermoplastic polymer based on wheat flour was modified by the addition of a natural crosslinker genipin. Films of the polymer modified with different composition of genipin were prepared by extrusion. Free surface energy using contact angle method, moisture absorption test and hardness test were used to characterize the products. From moisture absorption and contact angle measurements, it was seen that for genipin amounts higher than 0.2% w/w, a hydrophobic character is achieved. Results obtained indicate enhancement in hydrophobic properties of the films.
This paper describes an approach to manufacture hierarchical composites from environmentally friendly materials by grafting cellulose whiskers onto regenerated cellulose fibers (Cordenka 700). Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis were performed to verify the degree of modification. The mechanical properties of the unmodified and modified fibers were analyzed using fiber bundle tensile static and loading-unloading tests. To show the effect of cellulose whiskers grafting on the Cordenka fibers, epoxy based composites were manufactured and tensile tests done on transverse uni-directional specimens. The mechanical properties were significantly increased by fiber modification and addition of the nano-phase into composite reinforced with micro-sized fibers.
We study flax/thermoset polymer ISS [interfacial shear strength] for most common types of thermosets: vinylester, polyester, and epoxy. The effect of fiber surface treatment on ISS in such systems reinforced with flax fibers is investigated. Apparent ISS is evaluated from SFF tests by the Kelly-Tyson approach utilizing fiber strength at the critical length. Fiber strength at such small lengths is hardly accessible to direct testing, therefore it is usually extrapolated from test results at larger gauge lengths. We present ISS of flax fibers subjected to different treatments and thermoset polymers, derived from SFF tests using comprehensive fiber strength data.
It is known that the best flax fibres can compete in terms of mechanical properties with glass fibres. However, during the manufacturing process flax fibres are often damaged, and hence, the properties can be lowered. Furthermore, these properties change from batch to batch (depending on the time and place of harvest), which means that they are somewhat unpredictable. The most affected fibre property is strength, which can vary in very wide interval due to defects introduced by the manufacturing process. Therefore, there is a need for a simple but reliable testing procedure that allows the estimation of the strength of flax fibres, so called quality control. Regarding the final goal, that is the development of natural fibre composites, another crucial property is the fibre/matrix adhesion. The objective of this study is to investigate the possibility to use the single fibre fragmentation test to characterize strength distribution of flax fibres and to evaluate the adhesion. Untreated flax fibres and fibres coated by a special surface treatment are used. Fragmentation tests are performed on flax fibres embedded in thermoset, vinylester and polyester, resins. Results show that there is a definite improvement in interfacial strength when a fibre surface treatment is applied. Fibre strength distribution is obtained from SFFT and compared with limited results available from single flax fibre tests.
Stretching effects on the morphology of polypropylene/carbon nanotube composites is the focus of this work. The material under investigation was composed of isotactic polypropy lene (iPP) and multiwall car bon nanotubes (MWCNTs) in amount of 0.5 wt.%. The iPP and CNTs were mixed under sonication in a solvent, and the homogenized mixture was melted and pressed. The rectangular plates produced from the material were stretched by a constant load at a fixed temperature in order to obtain extended specimens. The scanning electron microscopy, a thermal gravimetric analysis, and the differential scanning calorimetry were employed to study variations in the structural morphology of the material. A dynamic mechanical analysis showed that the strain-induced crystallization of polypropylene and the possible Stone-Wales transformation of the carbon nanotubes due to stretching improved the mechanical performance of the nanocomposites considered.
A race towards a more sustainable society is going on worldwide and decreasing dependence on fossil resources in energy and transport sectors is main goals. One path to decreased oil usage is development of lightweight materials from renewable resources like bio-based composites. However these new bio-based materials have not only to compete in mechanical performance, they also have to restrain environmental loads like moisture and temperature over time. In this study two bio-based composites have been compared to an oil-based composite in terms of long-term properties and water absorption behaviour. The long-term behaviour is determined by dynamic mechanical thermal analysis, DMTA, and time temperature superposition, TTSP. The water uptake is determined by submersion of specimens into water and tracking their weight change over time. The moisture influence is characterised in form of water uptake and change in the master curves created by TTSP procedure. The results show that there is a significant difference in long-term performance between the bio-based and oil-based composites. It is realized that the bio-based composites can be a good alternative for some applications especially when taking their eco-friendly nature into account.
In tensile tests the flax/polypropylene composites clearly show nonlinear behavior in loading and hysteresis loops in unloading. In creep tests performed at different load levels the response was nonlinear viscoelastic, and after recovery, viscoplastic strains were detected. No degradation in stiffness could be seen and thus nonlinear viscoelasticity and viscoplasticity were assumed to be the main cause for the observed behavior. The fracture surface of a specimen that experienced creep rupture at 24 MPa was investigated using a scanning electron microscope. The viscoplastic response was studied experimentally and described by a power law with respect to time and stress level in the creep test. The nonlinear viscoelasticity was described using Schapery's model. The application of Prony series and a power law to approximate the viscoelastic compliance was investigated. Both descriptions have accuracy sufficient for practical applications. However, at high stresses the attempts to describe the viscoelastic compliance by a power law with a stress-independent exponent failed and therefore stress dependence of this exponent was included in the data analysis. The accuracy within the considered stress range is good, but the thermodynamic consistency of this procedure has to be proven.
Composite compounds based on hemp and flax fibers in triethyl citrate plasticized starch acetate were prepared by melt processing. For better properties and processability, compounds with plasticizer contents in the range 20-35 wt% were screened. Composites were prepared with fiber contents up to 50 wt%. The composite mechanical properties were measured from injection molded test specimens. A Young's modulus of 8.3 GPa and stress at maximum load of 51 MPa were obtained with 40 wt% flax fiber in a plasticized starch acetate with 20 wt% triethyl citrate. Decreasing the plasticizer and increasing the fiber content, the tensile properties were consistently improved. An almost linear relation between fiber content and the tensile properties was found. The increase of the fiber content first improved the impact strength, but at higher fiber contents resulted in a reduction of impact strength. The quality of the produced materials was found to be good; the variation in properties between duplicated compounds was acceptable low, the variation in density and fiber content along a single tensile specimen was low, and finally, the porosity content was low even at high fiber content. The latter result was verified with scanning electron microscope images of fracture surfaces of the composites.
Cellulosic fibre composite compounds based on hemp and flax fibres in triethyl citrate plasticised starch acetate were prepared by melt processing. Composites were prepared with fibre contents up to 50w%. A stiffness of 8.3 GPa and stress at maximum load of 51 MPa were obtained with 40w% flax fibre in a plasticised starch acetate with 20w% triethyl citrate. An almost linear relation between fibre content and the tensile properties was found. The impact strength of the composites was increased with the plasticiser content. The porosity content was low even at high fibre content.
Plant fibers are of increasing interest for use in composite materials. They are renewable resources and waste management is easier than with glass fibers. In the present study, longitudinal stiffness and strength as well as morphology of unidirectional sisal-epoxy composites manufactured by resin transfer molding (RTM) were studied. Horseshoe-shaped sisal fiber bundles (technical fibers) were nonuniformly distributed in the matrix. In contrast to many wood composites, lumen was not filled by polymer matrix. Technical sisal fibers showed higher effective modulus when included in the composite material than in the technical fiber test (40 GPa as compared with 24 GPa). In contrast, the effective technical fiber strength in the composites was estimated to be around 400 MPa in comparison with a measured technical fiber tensile strength of 550 MPa. Reasons for these phenomena are discussed.
Drying of wood may lead to readily observable macroscale cracks. Recently observations were made indicating that also at the level of cell walls, damage occurs due to drying. A method is presented where green wood is impregnated using a solution of water and a bulking compound such as glycerol. Tensile strength parallel to the grain for wood impregnated in the green state was compared with that for ordinary dried wood and for wood impregnated after drying. Data demonstrate significantly higher strength for wood impregnated in the green state. It is postulated that this is due to damage in the cell walls of non-impregnated wood where the damage is induced by the drying stresses. Support for this hypothesis is also presented in the form of fractography results. For wood impregnated in the green state, damage development during drying is limited. This is because the impregnating chemical (glycerol in the present case) in the cell wall substitutes some of the moisture and therefore limits the drying stresses.
The interaction between wood, Pinus sylvestris, (60% RH) and polyethyleneglycol (PEG) of different molecular weights (PEG 200 and PEG 1500), pentaerythritol and glycerol, impregnated into the wood, has been investigated using Scanning Electron Microscopy, EDS-analysis, dynamical mechanical techniques (DMTA), X-ray diffraction (WAXS) and macroscopic dimensional measurement. Reduced dimensional changes after impregnation when exposed to environments with changing moisture content, showed that the stabilization effect of glycerol and PEG 200 impregnation is very good. The other chemicals used, especially pentaerythritol, were not as effective as glycerol and PEG 200. Cell wall measurements using SEM show that an increase in cell wall thickness gives a corresponding increase in stabilization effect. DMTA-measurements showed that interaction between wood molecules and the chemicals used differs. In general, a higher degree of cell wall penetration of the chemicals gives a better stabilization effect. WAXS- investigations showed free crystalline pentaerythritol, PEG 1500, glycerol and PEG 200. Examination using SEM/EDS-linescan of potassium stained chemicals confirmed the results from the cell wall thickness measurements. However, the better resolution obtained in the STEM/EDS-linescan showed an inhomogenous distribution of the chemical in the cell wall. High temperature dried and green wood of Swedish pine was impregnated with glycerate and silver nitrate. Silver was precipitated in the cell wall by a new method. A significant difference in the distribution, size and location of the silver was observed. The silver particles are small and dispersed in the green wood samples but clustered and irregulary spaced in the dried specimens. The inhomogenous distribution in the dried specimens is believed to be the result of damage inside the wood cell walls due to drying stresses, which in turn will negatively affect the dimensional stabilizing result. The strength and energy to fracture is increased by a factor of two if wood not is allowed to be dried before cell wall bulking. This is because the impregnating chemical (glycerol in the present case) in the cell wall substitutes some of the moisture and therefore limits drying stresses. The glycerol is believed to be soluble inbetween the hemicellulose. The average distance between the silver particles in the impregnated green wood indicates that the impregnant is distributed in the cell wall at the microfibrilar level. Experimental results showed that the fastest diffusion path into the cell wall is from the lumen over the pit membrane through the compound middle lamell and not from the lumen through the secondary wall layer S3. The darker compound middle lamella seen in TEM is believed to be an artefact, as it is possible that the ML is thicker than the other layers in the wood cell wall after microtoming.
The size and location of silver particles in K-glycerate/AgNO3 impregnated Swedish pine, green wood as well as high temperature dried, have been studied using TEM micrographs. The diameter of the silver particles was found to be 2-20 nm in the impregnated green wood and as large as 1000 nm (major axis) for the ellipsoid-shaped silver clusters in the impregnated dried wood. Studying the projected area of the silver particles in impregnated green wood indicated that there are a lot of particles (40%) in the compound middle lamella with fewer particles in the S2 (6-8%), S1 (4%) and S3 (2%) layers. The average distance between the silver particles, 50 nm (S2-layer), in impregnated green wood shows that the impregnant is distributed in the cell wall at the microfibrilar level. Experimental results show that the fastest diffusion path into the cell wall is from the lumen over the pit membrane through the compound middle lamella and not from the lumen through the secondary wall layer S3.
High temperature dried and green wood of Swedish pine was impregnated with glycerate and silver nitrate. TEM and STEM/EDS on ultramicrotomed specimens was used to reveal the location of silver in the cell wall. The silver was precipitated by a new method using silver nitrate impregnated after which the wood had been impregnated with potassium glycerate. A significant difference in the distribution of the silver was observed. In the green wood, there was a homogenous distribution of the impregnant compared to the dried specimens. The inhomogenous distribution in the dried specimens is believed to be the result of damage inside the wood cell walls which in turn will have a negative effect on dimensional stabilizing results. The darker compound middle lamella observed is believed to be an artefact.
The penetration of bulking chemicals (glycerol, PEG 200, PEG 1500 and pentaerythritol) into the cell wall of wood, Pinus sylvestris, has been studied. A number of different methods for determining the distribution of chemicals in the cell wall were used. Measurements of the increase in cell wall thickness showed that glycerol and PEG 200 resulted in greater cell wall bulking compared to PEG 1500 and pentaerythritol. Examination with SEM/EDS-linescan confirmed these results. However, the better resolution possible with the STEM/EDS-linescan revealed an inhomogenous distribution of the chemical in the cell wall. This is believed to be due to microcracks in the cell wall which are the result of the initial drying of the wood. This general damage to the cell wall could be the reason for the failure to find a stabilizing chemical and method.
The possibilities of interaction between wood, Pinus sylvestris, (60% RH) and potassium stained PEG 1500 (polyethyleneglycol) have been investigated using Scanning Electron Microscopy (EDS-analysis), dynamical mechanical techniques (DMTA) and X-ray diffraction (WAX). The EDS-analysis shows an even distribution of potassium in the cell wall. On the other hand the predicted cell wall swelling associated with PEG absorption is absent. This indicates that the method of staining PEG with potassium does not work. The DMTA-measurements show interaction on the molecular level between wood and PEG 1500. EDS-analysis, SEM- and WAX-investigations show free PEG in the impregnated specimens.
The interaction between wood, Pinus sylvestris (60% RH), and polyethyleneglycol (PEG) of different molecular weights (PEG 200 and PEG 1500), pentaerythritol and glycerol, impregnated into wood, has been investigated using Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), dynamical mechanical techniques (DMTA), X-ray diffraction (WAXS) and macroscopic dimensional measurement. Reduced dimensional changes after impregnation, in environments with changing moisture content, show that the stabilization effect of glycerol impregnation is very good. The other chemicals used, especially pentaerythritol, were not as effective as glycerol. Cell wall measurements, using SEM, show that an increase in cell wall thickness gives a corresponding increase in stabilization effect. DMTA-measurements show that interaction between wood molecules and the chemicals used differs. In general, a higher degree of cell wall penetration of the chemicals show a better stabilization effect. PEG 200 was found to penetrate the cell wall much better than PEG 1500. WAXS-investigations show free crystalline pentaerythritol, PEG 1500, glycerol and PEG 200.
By addressing two critical barriers that are known to prevent U.S. undergraduate engineering students from considering study abroad, namely, fitting the experience into highly structured engineering degree curricula and defraying the cost, recruitment of students can be quite satisfactory. Based on the unequal exchange of E.U. students participating in the program, it appears that the time to Bachelor's degree completion can be an important aspect for E.U. participation. With regard to the cost, the differential cost of participation compared to the students staying at their home university can be quite low (a few thousand dollars per year), making this type of program potentially affordable to sustain by providing small scholarships r stipends to the students. Finally, by partnering with foreign universities, OSU and UdS have been able to leverage their resources and provide the opportunity for students to pursue a Bachelor'sdegree in materials science or mechanical engineering, respectively.