Microstructural analysis using X-ray computed tomography (CT) in flax/epoxy composites

37th Risø International Symposium on Materials Science

Kersani, M.^1,2 ; Lomov, S.V.^2 ; Van Vuure, A.W.^2 ; Bouabdallah, A.^1 ; Verpoest, I.^2

Faculty of Physics, University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediene, Algiers, Algeria^1

Department of Metallurgy and Materials Engineering, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium^2

关键词: Complex structure;    Interfacial debonding;    Micro-structure parameters;    Microscopic levels;    Microstructural analysis;    Natural fibre-reinforced composites;    Reinforced composites;    X-ray computed tomography;   

Others  :  https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1757-899X/139/1/012026/pdf
DOI  :  10.1088/1757-899X/139/1/012026

来源: IOP

【 摘 要 】

Among natural fibres which have recently become attractive to researchers, flax is probably the most commonly used bast-type fibre today. Due to its properties and availability, flax fibre has potential to substitute glass in polymer composites. A flax fibre has a complex structure; it can be classified into elementary fibres, which are grouped into so-called technical fibres. These technical fibres themselves are actually composite structures. Several works [1, 2, 3] were focussed on the study of damage behaviour in unidirectional flax fibres reinforced composites, where materials were subjected to tensile loading. At the microscopic level and at low stress, microcracks arise within the material and by growing they may lead to other forms of damage such as delamination, fibre breakage, interfacial debondingetc. In order to better understand the damage phenomena and to better control the parameters which lead to the failure, several methods and techniques have been developed on natural fibre reinforced composites [2, 3]. In the present work, X-ray computed tomography (CT) technique has been used to observe damage in flax/epoxy quasi-unidirectional woven laminates, loaded in uniaxial tension. The tensile tests show that these composites offer good mechanical properties. X-ray computed tomography technique allowed us, on the one hand to determine the microstructure parameters of the studied composites and to observe the damage occurring during loading, on the other. The inspection of the several tomography images showed cracks on interface of the yarns and technical fibres.