(75c) Flax Fiber Interfacial Bonding

Measured flax fiber physical and chemical properties potentially impact bonding and thus stress transfer between the matrix and fiber within composites. These first attempts at correlating flax fiber quality and biofiber composites contain the initial steps towards identifying key flax fiber characteristics that influence composite performance. Results demonstrate that fiber pullout and ILSS testing can both be considered viable methods for determining interfacial bonding strength for natural fibers. This study determined that among the fiber and matrix interfacial adhesion, fiber characteristics such as fiber elongation, wax content, bacterial content, fiber thickness, density, Ca and Mg content demonstrate a correlation to biofiber composite performance.